Beautiful Africa

Singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Rokia Traoré's Beautiful Africa 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.

Pitchfork described Traoré's 2009 record Tchamantché, 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." Tchamantché 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.