Dancing In The Dark

There's a good chance you've never been to a show quite like Amadou & Mariam's Eclipse. The married Malian duo, both of whom are completely blind, try to recreate the way they hear and interact with music by performing these shows in complete darkness. “There are two main differences,” Amadou Bagayoko, guitarist and vocalist, says via a translator. “The first one is for the public; they can't see the musicians so they have to be more concentrated because they can't see – they have to focus on the music. The second difference is that the musicians themselves sit down to play, so they have a kind of different approach.”

"They've got a specific choice of songs because the Eclipse show is supposed to tell their story,” the translator explains. “So they choose every song regarding to their own story – when they lived in Mali, in France, when they're touring and so on – to tell their own story and create a kind of emotion around it.”

While it's an inflexible kind of show at this point, Bagayoko admits the Eclipse show has changed somewhat since it was first conceived.  

“It has changed a little bit because from the public point of view, people are getting more and more interested by the show and from the musicians' point of view, they are getting more and more used to it – at the beginning they were a little bit stressed playing in the darkness and this particular atmosphere – now they are more and more comfortable with that.”

It's not a bad idea to go into this show with at least a little preparation. “The advice for the concert is that people have to know that they have got to focus on music,” the translator confers. “This show is really dedicated to music and they have to put the emphasis on it. Amadou is sure that it is going to change their way of listening to music; even if at the beginning people are a little bit ill-at-ease, because it is kind of different, he is sure that at the end of the show they will feel really good.”

Mali has not been the happiest place in recent years, but as he speaks from his home in the West African country, Bagayoko says there is hope that peace will be restored, despite the ceasefire between the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad and the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Murabitoun ending in September. “They definitely see hope that peace will come in Mali; there are several clues that indicate that peace is possible,” Bagayoko's translator says. “Besides the fact that there were some troubles in the north, people are starting to go back to the north after they went to the south to escape from the troubles. They are quite positive about it.”