Amadou Diagne has centuries of West African music at his fingertips. Cory Seznec is a musical wanderer and uncertified ethnomusicologist. A chance encounter while busking in Bath planted the seeds of a collaboration that’s been fermenting now for over a decade. Those seedlings are shooting up into the light with a prestigious Arts Council of England grant and the release of their sophomore album, Plastic Man, recorded at the legendary Real World Studios and produced by Oscar Cainer. Touki means “journey” in Wolof, Diagne’s mother tongue. Plastic Man focuses on climate change, environmental activism and spiritual matters—drawing together West African fables, personal stories and the social, economic and political challenges facing both developing countries and western ones. This is music that asks ecological, spiritual, and political questions. Touki’s sound infuses East and West African styles and traditions with Appalachian banjo, folk motifs, and orchestral arrangements. Diagne’s powerful percussion and Seznec’s syncopated guitar-picking and rapid-fire banjo-frailing provide a rhythmic foundation, while vocals, kora and strings add beautiful texture and emotional depth. As they sail through the crosscurrents of our complex world, Touki understands that the musical voyage itself is the destination. About the musicians: Born into a griot family of percussionists and praise singers in Dakar, Amadou Diagne is not your ordinary griot. Though he draws heavily on Coastal African sounds and rhythms, he has forged his own identity as a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. A self-taught kora player (he was prohibited from studying in Senegal because he did not descend from a lineage of kora players) and guitarist (he developed a signature style to accompany his powerhouse voice), he has developed a unique and intricate style to accompany his powerful, rich, high-pitched voice, drawing on his skills as a percussionist. His music has been featured in Songlines, BBC 3 Late Junction and fRoots. In addition to Touki and his solo project, Diagne regularly accompanies Senegalese artists such as Seckou Keita, Jali Fily Cissokho, Sura Susso, Suntou Susso, and Baaba Maal. A French-American in Paris, Cory Seznec’s fingerstyle guitar-playing is syncopated, polyrhythmic, cross-pollinated and idiosyncratic. He also plays banjo and wades in the deep river of American song. Busking misadventures with Malian musicians in the Paris metro led him to Songhai songsters in Timbuktu and ancient omutibo guitarists in Western Kenya. Feverish touring with the world roots trio Groanbox gave him his sea legs. But a three-year stint in Ethiopia is what cracked everything open. These experiences shaped Seznec into an artist who traces the through-line across musical cultures and whose songs let the past reverberate in the present. Seznec is also an avid guitar arranger and educator, regularly recording videos of his various arrangements and teaching both individual lessons and at music camps such as the Swannanoa Gathering (North Carolina), the Ashokan Guitar Camp (New York), the Sawmill Sessions (Paris FR) and Blues at the Gorge (Oregon). On the road, Touki tour as a trio with American accordion virtuoso Michael Ward-Bergeman. Michael’s strong bonds with Cory were forged two decades ago as founding members of the band Groanbox, when they first met Amadou. He is currently involved with numerous projects including Ritmo Machino, an accordion/percussion collaboration with master percussionists Jamey Haddad and Cyro Baptista, Americana Art music group Center of the River, trumpet/marimba/accordion trio Triad, and a collaboration with Iranian kamancheh player Kayhan Kalhor. He recently appeared with the Los Angeles Opera performing Gustavo Santaolalla’s soundtrack live to the 1931 Spanish Dracula movie. His compositions have been commissioned by Carnegie Hall, Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble and others. He has performed on dozens of recordings and soundtracks to movies by Francis Ford Coppola and others, including Coppola’s latest film Megalopolis. His arrangement and performance of St. James Infirmary with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble appeared on their 2016 Grammy award winning album, Sing Me Home. A scintillating sequel to Ali Farka Touré & Ry Cooder’s Talking Timbuktu. —ROLLING STONE A thrilling global folk album. —SONGLINES An intoxicating mix…this is an album verging on the essential. —RNR Magazine