The debut album Nio (meaning “Soul” in Mandinka) from kora-player Momi Maiga clearly establishes the now Barcelona-based composer/musician as a force to be reckoned with for his splendid fusion of ethnic jazz, flamenco and Senegalese roots music.  With the help of high quality audio engineering, mixing and mastering, Nio fuses the ethereal 22-string African harp-lute with effervescent tracks of violin, cello, guitar, percussion and vocals.  The soulful results capture many moods, while presenting each melodic dialogue with impeccable vocal fluency and surprising musical sensitivity.  

The songs’ messages reflect on human values and salient issues of our time, while awakening a range of emotions from deep meditative sadness to uplifting joy of life. An underlying theme is the importance of preserving the purest human values such as solidarity, respect, love and dignity.

Momi Maiga’s album yields bountiful rewards from his collaboration with multifaceted violinist Carlos Montfort, respected percussionist Aleix Tobias, and esteemed cellist Martín Meléndez. The ten-song journey is joined by his renowned cousin Seckou Keita in the song “Casamance,” singer Sílvia Pérez Cruz in “Sidiya,” and guitarist Pau Figueres in “Mansani.” The new age sensitivity of slower tempo’ed pieces like “Ocean” and “1001” is very relaxing, while “Wato” evolves with dynamics similar to time’s passage. 

Born in 1997, Momi Maiga grew up in the southern region of Senegal, immersed in a vast musical heritage of the renowned Cissokho family that has used music and song to convey history, values ​​and messages of peace to society for centuries. While his journey as a musician began as a percussionist accompanying his uncles, the young man also took to the kora and the music’s deep connection to Mandinka traditions and repertoires. During a period from 2015-2019, Momi Maiga collaborated the Ale Möller Band from Sweden, played a concert with Ziguinchor Hip Hop group Djali Kunda, traveled to France with the Dakar group Weuzz et le Samara, visited Barcelona ​​​​and sang on the album Goor by the pianist Adrià González.  Now settled in Catalonia, he is shaping his music and presenting his first album that is distinguishing Momi Maiga as a daring composer who collaborates with other musicians and isn’t confined by genre boundaries.  (Joe Ross, Roots Music Report)