DUMISANI MARAIRE AND EPHAT MUJURU Shona Spirit
Music Of The World

We're all getting used to collisions of culture, fusions of style and diverse instrumentation. But it is rare indeed for a recording to be notable because it features two artists from the same culture playing the same instrument. Dumisani Maraire has been a denizen of the west coast of the US for many years, teaching and performing his mbira music from Zimbabwe to all who came. Ephat Mujuru lurked on the east coast, doing much the same. How these two masters of Shona music have missed (some say avoided) each other until now is not only a mystery but a shame.

This is real purity here: just two men with thumb pianos, shakers and voices, with no clever tricks or star-studded overdubs. They share a common culture, but over the years have taken very different approaches to the music they share. Here we find that those differences are not as great as we would have been led to believe, that the spiritual ancestors of each share the same plane, the same history, and those spirits have come together in the studio to inspire a lovely, simple and ultimately powerful recording. Solo and in duet, with only elemental wood and steel instruments, Maraire and Mujuru have found a bright, warm light and turned it into music.
- cliff furnald