Dudú Kouaté & Ernst Reijseger – solos and duo

Senegalese percussionist and multi-instrumentalist Dudù Kouaté and Dutch cellist Ernst Reijseger come together for an evening of solo performances followed by a duo set.

Born into a family of griots, Kouaté draws on a deep knowledge of West African musical traditions, working with voice, percussion and an extraordinary array of instruments, many of them handmade. His restless exploration of sound has taken him from collaborations with Moor Mother to the Art Ensemble of Chicago, of which he has been a member since 2017.

Reijseger has spent decades finding new possibilities for the cello, with a musical history stretching from Derek Bailey’s Company and the ICP Orchestra to film scores.

He has played with Derek Bailey, Han Bennink, Steve Lacy and Gerry Hemingway, alongside work with musicians from many other traditions. His approach to the cello is as rhythmic as it is melodic, moving between fingerpicked passages, bowed textures and improvisation. He has also composed scores for films by Werner Herzog, including Cave of Forgotten Dreams and The White Diamond.

For this concert the two musicians will each have space for a solo performance before meeting in duo.