I don’t know a thing about African music.  I don’t understand its lyrics; I’m unfamiliar with its tradition and its dialogue.  So I’m limited in what I can say about it.

But the music that Ali Farka Touré made with Toumani Diabaté in the years before the former died in 2006 is the kind that makes my ignorance irrelevant; 2005’s In the Heart of the Moon was a masterpiece by any measure, and upcoming release Ali & Toumani, a compilation of their final recordings together, is likely to join it.  You may have heard of Touré and Diabaté if your parents were of the National Public Radio set, or if you listen to Björk (Diabaté made an appearance on 2007’s Volta), or if you listen to Dirty Projectors (Touré’s signature guitar style informed just about every pluck on Bitte Orca).  If you’re an indie kid, this is the least esoteric African stuff out there besides The Very Best.  But that doesn’t matter, because it’s amazing music.

Touré and Diabaté both hail from Mali, where Diabaté’s family has been playing the kora for (apparently) 71 generations and where Touré played a style of music often referred to as “the desert blues” for its role as a root of American blues music.  Both musicians are masters of their instruments, Touré’s guitar playing unmistakable and Diabaté’s kora always sounding like many instruments playing magically at once.

It’s not the virtuosity that makes the music what is it is, though.  On their collaborative work, it’s the ease with which they play that makes the spell work; it’s beautiful to hear, it draws you in, it builds to something sublime, and then, unassumingly, it ends.  These guys can record in a single take, and to listen is to be hypnotized.  I saw Diabaté perform this summer and was floored by his solo performance (he was playing with Béla Fleck, who is great but different); from the crowd I watched him play his kora as if he were praying to it and I felt close though I was rows and rows away, and it’s the same thing to listen to these recordings.  It’s immediate, and consuming.  It takes you by surprise.

Ali & Toumani is out tomorrow on Nonesuch, and I expect it to be wonderful judging by the first two singles, “Kala Djula” and “Sabu Yerkoy,” which are floating around the blogosphere (try searching them on Hypemachine).  In the Heart of the Moon is a desert-island album that you should download right away; Googling “heart moon mediafire” will do the trick.