“The first time I met Oumar Konate was in Sweden. He came with Sidi Toure for the Sweden-Mali voices festival in 2010. Just arriving from the train-station they immediately picked up their guitars and started to play Sidi’s songs. Although already knowing how good the musicians from Mali are, Oumar totally knocked me out. From his guitar, Oumar brought out the finest melodies to Sidi’s songs. Oumar has recorded one album called Addoh. There is a video from one of the songs on Youtube. The song is called Ir Ganda Hassara. Have a look!! It’s a very important song.

Coming from Gao he has the typical Songhoy style of playing guitar, which has a similarity to how the Songhoy play the ngoni. With his profound knowledge of international pop-music and modern sound-technique he is, in my ears, already one of the greatest guitarists from Mali.”