OMAR SOSA & SECKOU KEITA

SUBA, the second album by Cuban virtuoso pianist Omar Sosa and Senegalese kora master Seckou Keita, follows the duo’s critically acclaimed debut album Transparent Water (2017).

Written and recorded in 2020 during the global lockdown, SUBA (sunrise in Malinké) is a hymn to hope in a post-pandemic world. The Atlantic Ocean separates Cuba and Senegal, the respective birthplaces of Omar Sosa and Seckou Keita, a distance diminished by their shared ancestral link to Africa. When the pair first met in 2012, Seckou loved Omar for his musical spirituality, whilst Omar saw in Seckou a rare ability to collaborate but not lose his identity.

Two core principles guided the enterprise: the less is more (or minimalismo approach as Omar likes to call it), and collaboration. The two artists work in a spirit of listening and respect for shared ideas. For them: the only boss is the music.

The eleven tracks comprising SUBA are linked by common themes that are woven throughout the recording. The songs tell of friendship and spiritual connection, of travel and loss, of hope and optimism, of dancing and the sea… and, of course, of a new sunrise.