Stef Kamil Carlens was invited by Ibrahim Diallo and Dora Mols (from the Antwerp Zuiderspershuis) to travel to the West African Burkina Faso a couple of times in 2010, without, and later together with, his musicians. ‘Africa had always intrigued me, but until I took this trip – and except for a collection of CD’s- it had always been a foreign continent to me’, says Carlens.
In Burkina, Ibrahim Diallo introduced him to the balafon player Mamadou Diabaté Kibié and the singer Awa Démé, the last two are griots, popular traditional West African storytellers. Stef Kamil Carlens listened to the griots’ stories, observed and kneaded. During that introduction the ground was laid for between two traditions, a lot of improvisation and looking at what the day brings.
Wait For Me, a duetWait For Me, a meeting between West African griot