“Sarajalela” is a track by Swedish jazz flutist Annarella Sörlin and Malian ngoni maestro Django Diabaté from their forthcoming collaborative album, Jouer. This song amalgamates the quintessential essence of Scandinavian and West African music.

Both artists met in 2021, during a tour with Wau Wau Collectif—an Afro-European project. This unanticipated meeting occurred by pure luck and the spontaneity of the jam sessions on this tour didn’t go unnoticed. After three years of the serendipitous encounter, we are presented with the duo’s first album.

Along with instrumentals, Jouer features pieces with vocals sung in Mandingo and Bambara. “Sarajalela” has vocals sung by Django and  Marietou Kouyaté who also lend her voice on  ”Dakar-Örebrp” and ”Megaphone”. The soundscape of this song relies on Swedish folk artist Ale Möller’s swelling accordion as well as Swedish trio Lars Fredrik Swahn, Pet Lager, and co-producer Karl Jonas Winqvist who held everything together through their rhythm works.

“Sarajalela” starts with Annarella’s flute over a piano vamp and syncopated minimalistic percussion. Kouyaté’s voice soon joins in outlining the pentatonic scale. Within the first few seconds, a cross breeze from Europe and Africa engulfs the entirety of listeners’ aural pallets. As the song evolves, other instruments emerge from the depths of this coherent tapestry of sounds. Following a bridge section of piano and accordion, the track builds up to a gnarly flute solo by Annarella. She superimposes her lush and whistful melodic lines on the canvas of harmony and bouncy Afro-groove.

Over the course of the track, it becomes palpable that the blend of Swedish and African tradition is a match made in heaven in the hands of these two talents. We hope the upcoming album is only the beginning of a timeless collaboration.