Enamoured of the kora, the 500-year-old calabash-and-cowskin chordophone championed by, among others, the celebrated Toumani Diabat\u00e9, Bogot\u00e1\u2019s Gabriel Bass has spent most of the last decade exploring how far afield he can range with the scintillating tones of the West African instrument\u2019s 21 thumb-plucked strings. Bass uses the kora as a divining rod, seeking out the underground streams where truly a world\u2019s worth of music flows together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The African aspect is often present, if subtly. Lyrics are in Spanish, English and, on the darkly funny \u201cKult\u00edve Konscienca\u201d, Portuguese. There are hints of earnest American hipster indie-folk (\u201cKids\u201d, \u201cKompunction\u201d), and Asian accents on the final track, \u201cKambuche\u201d. Of course, being Colombiano, Bass can\u2019t pass up a cumbia number, and there\u2019s a nice one here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bass and his bandmates Camilo Vel\u00e1squez and Efren Ramirez, who bring all kinds of other instruments into play discreetly but effectively, put some serious effort into reaching a hypernational, universal kind of music. Kult\u00edvate<\/em> thus has its share of moments in which Bass and company achieve a whole greater than the sum of its reference points, beautiful, gregarious music that\u2019s genuinely without borders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n