Story
A sunset live session in the Negev desert — two koras, sitar, lyra, and percussion weave West African, Indian, and Mediterranean music into one unrepeatable moment.
Jarabi is one of the most beloved pieces in West African kora music, a song of longing originally composed by the legendary kora virtuoso Toumani Diabaté of Mali. In this live version, recorded at sunset in the desert of Mitzpe Ramon in southern Israel, the song travels far from its Mande origins — meeting Indian classical sitar, Greek lyra, and deep percussion at the edge of the Negev.
Five musicians from different traditions — West Africa, India, Greece, and the Middle East — gathered at the crater's rim as the sun went down. What emerged was not a rehearsed performance but a living conversation: each musician listening, responding, and finding their own way into the shared language of the raga.
Two koras carry the melody and rhythm of the Mande tradition. A sitar reaches into Indian classical improvisation, finding the emotional core of Jarabi through raga. A Greek lyra adds a Mediterranean voice. Calabash and percussion hold the pulse beneath it all. And through the whole session, the desert itself is present — the silence of the Negev amplifying every note.
This is what Afro-Raga sounds like when it happens honestly: no studio, no edits, just five musicians and a disappearing sun.
