Years after, finally the triple alliance of Gerald Toto, Richard Bona and Lokua Kanza returns with a new album "Bondeko", the belated follow-up to their acclaimed magical collaboration on 2004's Toto Bona Lokua. "Bondeko" picks up where Toto Bona Lokua left off, yet more nuanced and finely detailed, marinated in the wisdom and experience of their individual musical adventures during the intervening years.
Crafted but without artifice, virtuosic yet spontaneous, it's a record which is both playful and profound. Sensual melodies and fluid, swaying rhythms overlap, as roots intersect and three distinctive musical personalities melt into one, their voices combining as felicitously as the exquisite harmonies of Crosby, Stills and Nash or the unique vocal layerings of Bobby McFerrin. All three drink from the profound wellspring of Africa but represent different musical streams and tributaries of its mighty river.
Toto, Bona and Kanza sound like they were born to play together. A summit meeting in which a shared sense of freedom and adventure shines out like a beacon. A trinity of voices entwined as one, multi-faceted and yet with a united vision. Friendship. Fraternity. Bondeko.
