Beautiful Africa

Beautiful Africa

• Shrink-wrapped

Singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Rokia Traoré's <i>Beautiful Africa</i> was produced by English musician John Parish (PJ Harvey, Eels, Sparklehorse) and recorded at Toybox Studios in Bristol, UK. Its lyrics are sung in the Malian-born Traoré's native languages of French and Bambara, as well as some English. <br><br>Pitchfork described Traoré's 2009 record <i>Tchamantché</i>, as "a guitar album of a particularly understated bent...hauntingly spare yet ridiculously well-defined, the timbre and tone of every string presented in perfect resolution." And the BBC World Service called it "One of the best albums of the year. An absolute stunner." <i>Tchamantché</i> also won a Victoires de la Musique (the equivalent of a Grammy Award in France) and a Songlines Artist of the Year Award for Traoré.