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Powerhouse ensemble Balimaya Project combine driving collective polyrhythms, blazing frontline horns & virtuosic kora stylings issued from the dynamic meeting of traditional Mandé music/culture and contemporary jazz, Balimaya Project cross seven dynamic meetings of traditional Mandé music/culture and contemporary jazz . If their debut album emphasised tradition and culture in a collective sense, then their second album When The Dust Settles, released in July 2023, addresses the emotional and deeply personal, tapping into the ethos of support and brotherhood baked into the DNA of the project. “From the first album to this one, one thing that's really linking us is that concept of family and the bonds are getting stronger every time,” he explains. A maturation in sound and approach, When The Dust Settles brings Camara Onono’s lived experience to the fore, dealing with the death of his older brother, losing a child, becoming a father, migration, survival and the search for truth. “My personal themes are things that I think other people can also relate to. But they're also part of being a young Black man in a diaspora, which is grief, anger, rage, joy - all the different elements that make up a man and a Black man, which are the same feelings and emotions that everyone else can feel,” he elaborates.
