Nightwalk Juju 2000 Listen

Their music is a blend of interweaving encounters that at times seem utterly obvious. When the two first met, the Englishman Ju(stin) Adams – Robert Plant’s guitarist and producer of Tinariwen and Lo’jo – and the Gambian Ju(ldeh Camara), were drawn to combine their art, producing some superb fusions where punk-rock-jazz interlaces with the African sounds of the riti (one-string violin) and the kologo (two-string banjo).

In the mid-2000s, their musical love affair produced two finely chiselled albums, Soul Science in 2007 and Tell No Lies in 2009. This third opus clearly takes them closer to alchemy. Here, each partner’s influence on the other has become barely perceptible and the two namesakes, merged into the group Juju, claim virgin territory in forging a completely original sound.

© Bartosz Madejski Justin Adams’ Anglo-Afro fusion, ex British punk’s links to Africa

For the first time, they are accompanied by a rhythm section (the extraordinary percussionist Dave Smith, and the equally talented bass player Billy Fuller), and together they travel the path to trance, transporting the listener on tracks lasting a quarter of an hour, spicing up the hypnotic loops to create an incantatory world charged with decibels and intelligence, in which groove has the last word.

Set to a background of guitar and percussion rolls, a sublime violin calls out alongside Juldeh’s haunting vocals, and gets our bodies moving, as if possessed. The album was recorded in a single session, yet its subtle architecture reflects hours of playing together. The hypnotic In Trance is a miraculous coming together excuding one breath, one love, one debate and one unique world.

Juju (Justin Adams & Juldeh Camara) In Trance (Realworld) 2011