Amadou Ousmane Ali - Mai Molo (2024)

One of Purplish’s most popular tapes is from an artist who was completely anonymous to O’Donnell and Coltun at first. “While on tour with Mdou Moctar in 2019, Mdou would play a field recording he had on his phone by a guy he called ‘Mai Molo,’” Coltun says. “We used to play this recording every day in the van. It was incredible.” They didn’t know who the musician was, only that he played a type of lute called the molo and that he was Fulani. “A couple years later when I was in Niger I brought up that recording to Mdou and he made some calls. To our surprise ‘Mai Molo’ showed up at the place we were staying. He stayed over and in the morning we went outside to record his album Mai Molo.” They would later find out that Mai Molo’s real name is Amadou Ousmane Ali, and his album is a key reason that Purplish exists: to introduce such amazing but unknown musicians to the world.

Tracklist:
01-01 Amadou Ousmane Ali - Niamey, Niger 2021 (A) [19:51]
01-02 Amadou Ousmane Ali - Niamey, Niger 2021 (B) [20:51]