Album review

Lëk Sèn

Burn

Paris 

10/11/2010 - 

After reaching the finals of the 2007 RFI Découvertes award with his group SSK, the Senegalese Lëk Sèn has now released a first album under his own name. Entitled Burn, the sound is intense and original, inhabited by myriad musical worlds from which his own music draws subtle inspiration.

Take one singer ripened on the Senegalese hip-hop scene, Lëk Sèn, add a pair of seasoned, eclectic producers, then slowly macerate together for over a year, taking care to leave the studio doors open to any new ideas passing by. And there you have the modular, empirical recipe used to cook up the album Burn.

For the ingredients to work their alchemy, Lëk Sèn needed to be at ease in front of the microphone singing very different musical material from what he was used to. His relationship of trust with his partners played a crucial role: he was accompanied by the same team that had worked on the album of his group SSK, which was a finalist at the RFI Découvertes in 2007.

Extra spice came from a selection of guests from diverse backgrounds: Amadou Bagayoko was there (without Mariam) to add a Malian flavour with his guitar, Medhi Haddad with his creative oud, the veteran Jamaican Kiddus I, and chorus singer Julia Sarr performing alongside all those African stars.

Without ever meeting him, Sèn encounters Tiken Jah Fakoly version 2010: some tracks in their respective albums are undeniable cousins. But although both emphasize an acoustic atmosphere influenced by reggae and share a similar sound (the Ivoirian singer’s sound engineer did the mixing on Burn), the Senegalese man’s songs are more wild and raw, at times heavy with rock and at others hypnotic, like in Massamba.

The vocals are deep and slightly nasal, something like Shaggy, the guitar rhythms provide the structure, and the omnipresent percussion mostly does a good job replacing the drums, with a Mellotron discreetly filling in the background.

No need to add flavour enhancer, the ingredients taste good enough on their own. 

Lëk Sèn Burn (Makasound) 2010
Live concert on 13 November at Trois Baudets (Festival Villes des Musiques du Monde) - Paris

Bertrand  Lavaine

Translation : Anne-Marie  Harper