featuring world-class traditional musicians,

Ellika Frissell & Solo Cissokho

will be giving a one-night only performance at the Weaving Mill

for an evening of traditional Senegalese and Swedish musical fusion

Ellika & Solo first met on the stage of a club in Stockholm in 1998. There, Senegalese folk music or griotmusic met the Swedish polska. Solo is a bearer of his people’s history from a very long story-telling tradition, while Ellika’s music has deep roots in the wildly joyous story-telling tradition of Bingsjö. Together they make music where song, combined with the kora’s rhythmical flow, form a colourful platform for the polska. Ellika & Solo have been playing together since then and have toured in the USA, Africa, Greenland and many parts of Europe. Their ongoing dialogue between fiddle and kora feels just as exciting and unpredictable now as it did at their first meeting. Their debut album Tretakt/Takissaba was awarded the prestigious BBC 2003 World Music Award and Abaraka/Tack won the best folk music album at the Swedish Grammy Awards 2006.

Considering the reflective and even mournful associations both of their chosen instruments have, the music Ellika & Solo make together is surprisingly joyful. It seems to effortlessly express their delight at finding such a natural fusion between two apparently distant types of roots music. It merges traditional Swedish polskas, schottisches and waltzes with ancient griot melodies as well as new compositions by both artists. World music fusions often involve one player timidly tagging behind another, stylistically in their shadow, whereas these two seem to lean towards each other in mutual agreement. And when they start to improvise, something much more than the sum of its parts emerges. Or as Solo puts it: 'A new baby is born.'

Finger-food will be provided by Abu Faysal.

This event is supported by Swedish Embassy.

Tickets will be available in advance from the Weaving Mill (22 762275)

and from the Moufflon Bookshop in Nicosia (22 665155).