Live transmission it s at the heart of West African culture, its oral, and aural, tradition. Musically, it s in the passing on of expertise from teacher to pupil, who in turn becomes a teacher; and it s in the fluid improvisational ability of the finest musicians there, like those that Yann Tambour aka Stranded Horse, worked with over two weeks in Dakar, Senegal in June 2012. In thiscontext, Joy Division s epochal hymn to alienation takes on a completely different meaning. It s not the first time that Tambour has tackled a dark English classic on his last album, 2011 s discretely breathtaking Humbling Tides, he had his way with The Smiths What Difference Does It Make? This one was a pretty random choice I was playing around with the kora one night and found the chords to the Joy Division cover, I decided to go for it, I thought it was a really exciting idea. These chords could have been another song as well but for some reason I started thinking of the chorus to Tranmission and realised I could make a cover out of it. In his covers, Tambour comes to the songs on his own terms, not beholden to the originals, and not necessarily matching them chord for chord. This mirrors his approach to the kora, the instrument that has been the focus of his career since leaving behind the sounds of his previous project, Encre, and where, rather than attempting wholesale emulation of African players, he s found his own style somewhere between that of the Mandinka tradition and Western folk picking. Still, he says, the initial plan was to have the musicians including a riti (stringed instrument played with a bow) player who also happens to be Youssou N Dour s chauffeur mimic the original Joy Division arrangement. But then I realised they were more at ease with traditional Mandinka arrangements, and it was much more interesting to just let things flow and let them improvise, with their own knowledge, on a song they didn t really know anything about. They didn t know much about the context of the original, but were really excited and found it really catchy. I think it s definitely their favourite song from the session. After the pared down Humbling Tides, Transmission , with its beautifully intertwined sounds of kora, balafon and riti, sees Tambour operating in something approaching a band context. The opportunity to work with musicians in Senegal came through a residency arranged by the French Institute in Dakar. When I came to the Institute most of the musicians they could introduce me to were all very busy, a lot of them signed to big labels and too involved in the conventional World Music circuit to my taste. I was also looking for someone who would be willing to get involved in a long-term collaboration. He found his perfect foil in Boubacar Cissokho, via a video on the internet simply labelled Bouba Kora.