— A new record from
Aïssata
Diallo.
Songs in Bambara, Fulfulde and French. The griot tradition, kept honest, kept moving.
The voice carries because it remembers. Not the voice alone, but everyone who lent her theirs. — The Guardian, January 2026
Heritage · matière
The cloth speaks before the griotte does.
Bògòlanfini, the mud-cloth of the Bambara peoples of Mali, is a written language as much as a textile. Chevrons, eight-pointed stars, parallel lines, tigafaranin dots — each motif carries a phrase, a proverb, a piece of family history. The album wraps itself in that vocabulary, not as costume, but as kinship. Indigo, ochre, dark earth, cream — four hands of the same dye bath.
i. Tour 2026
The Tabou
tour, summer 2026.
- 17 May 2026 Paris FR La Cigale — album launch, two nights Sold Out Sold out
- 24 May 2026 London UK Barbican Hall — Africa Express presents On Sale DICE →
- 02 Jun 2026 Marseille FR Festival Marsatac On Sale Fnac →
- 09 Jun 2026 Berlin DE Pierre Boulez Saal On Sale Eventim →
- 16 Jun 2026 Amsterdam NL Paradiso — Holland Festival On Sale Paradiso →
- 22 Jun 2026 Roskilde DK Roskilde Festival — Pavilion stage On Sale Tickets →
- 29 Jun 2026 Glastonbury UK West Holts Stage — Saturday afternoon Festival Sold Out Festival
- 05 Jul 2026 Montreux CH Montreux Jazz Festival — Auditorium Stravinski On Sale Tickets →
- 12 Jul 2026 Vienna AT Wiener Konzerthaus On Sale Tickets →
- 19 Jul 2026 Bamako ML Festival sur le Niger — homecoming concert On Sale Email →
- 26 Jul 2026 Dakar SN Théâtre National Daniel Sorano On Sale Email →
- 12 Sep 2026 New York US Lincoln Center — World Music Series TBA Soon
- 14 Mar 2026 Casablanca MA L'Boulevard — preview show Past Past
ii. New album
Tabou.
Eleven songs.
Three languages.
One thread.
Tabou is the second record from Aïssata Diallo and the first conceived between Bamako and Paris. Recorded across nine months at Studio Bogolan and Studio Ferber, produced by Nick Gold with arrangements by Vincent Segal. Eleven tracks: griot recitations, ngoni and kora, brushed drums, Rhodes, strings.
iii. About
The griot
was the librarian.
"My great-grandmother sang the names of the kings of Ségou. I sing the names of the people who left."
Aïssata Diallo was born in Bamako in 1995, the eldest daughter of a family from the Fouta Djallon region of Guinea. Her grandmother Hadja Mariama Diallo, a griotte in the Diallo lineage, taught her the songs of the family before she could read. By twelve she was performing at weddings; by sixteen she had left for Paris on a scholarship to the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique.
Her debut record, Yere (World Circuit, 2022), was nominated for a BBC Radio 3 Award for World Music. Pitchfork called it "as much an archive as an album." The years between have been spent on the road and in the studio: collaborations with Toumani Diabaté, Vincent Segal, Bonga, Angelique Kidjo, and the Kronos Quartet.
"Tabou" is the second record. The title is the Bambara word for what is forbidden, and what is sacred — the same word, in this case. Eleven songs about the women in her family, about Paris, about the long route through Mauritania, about the songs no one was allowed to sing.
She speaks four languages and sings in three. Her ensemble travels with her: Mamady Kouyaté (kora), Issa Coulibaly (ngoni), Cécile Lartigau (ondes martenot), Vincent Segal (cello), Lamine Cissokho (percussion).
iv. Press
What they said
about Yere.
"As much an archive as an album. The kind of record that re-tunes the room you play it in."
Best New Music · 2022
"Diallo's voice carries five generations of women without ever sounding like a museum."
Album of the Week · January 2026
"The most important debut from West Africa this decade. Patient, unhurried, unforgettable."
Top of the World · Issue 184
"Une voix d'une rare profondeur. Diallo réinvente la tradition griotte pour notre époque."
Critique musique · Mars 2026
Tour news first.
Les dates en premier.
New album, new tour dates, occasional letters from the road. Once a month, never more. Nouveau disque, nouvelles dates, lettres depuis la route. Une fois par mois, pas plus.