This musical pairing from Mali and France has worked together before, producing the highly regarded Chamber Music back in 2010. Musique de Nuit is effectively more of the same, and all the hallmark musical ingredients of their earlier work — gorgeous, cascading melodies and joyous multi-string workouts — can be found here too.

There's stylistic variety aplenty. "Prelude" is a slow elegiac blues, while "Samba Tomora" is more up-tempo and energetic. "Passa Quatro" has a vaguely Spanish vibe about it, while "Balazando" builds slowly, with the plucked strings of the cello resembling the sound produced by a Moroccan gimbri. Musical mimicry is a common strategy throughout as, rather than using additional musicians, Sissoko and Segal get their own instruments to provide additional color by imitating traditional instruments like flute, ngoni and takamba. The only guest musician to appear is Babani Koné, who sings on "Diaboro". Otherwise it is just Sisokko and Segal weaving their special kind of empathic magic. What is probably most appealing about these two musicians is the way they work seamlessly together: constantly swapping leads and trading lines without there ever being a clearly defined lead or accompanist role. The result is smooth, organic, uninhibited.

As the title suggests, this is music that celebrates the spirit of the African night. Recorded outdoors in Bamako, live with no overdubs, this is more spontaneous and rougher edged that their earlier studio album. As a result Musique de Nuit is more free-ranging, drawing in all manner of influences. Neither African nor European, east or west, this is music that evokes its own particular geography.