Ali Farka Toure - Savane

180-gram gatefold double LP

Remastered recording, includes 16-page booklet

The final solo album by the late Malian musician Ali Farka Touré. Touré was one of the true giants of African music, the greatest ambassador of desert blues, and a consummate performer and composer. Savane has been remastered for its first-ever LP release on Sept. 6, 2019.

As Touré fought againt terminal bone cancer, a struggle that consumed his final two years, he found inspiration and channeled it into this final work. Savane, and a collaboration with kora player Toumani Diabate (In the Heart of the Moon), were recorded simultaneously by longtime Touré producer Nick Gold at Bamako's Mandé Hotel.

In the Heart of the Moon was Touré his second Grammy just weeks before his death, while Savane stands as his poshumous defining statement, a deeply felt album that stands among his best, writes Pitchfork.

"The album flows like a river, at times, tumultuous, at others placid, but always full of life and movement. Mixing his instantly identifiable electric guitar sound with a band that includes bamboo flute, ngoni (a four-stringed lute), traditional percussion instruments and a one-stringed violin called an njarka (all of which Touré himself played well), he conjures an elemental thrum on Savane as organic as the soil of his farm. Harmonica and saxophone make cameos, and Touré's raw, powerful voice is answered by understated chants and choral vocals." — Pitchfork

Recorded in Bamako, Mali with his specially assembled down-home ngoni group, and often acclaimed as his finest album, Savane is both one of the most traditional and seemingly the most blues-drenched of Ali's recordings.