This week marks the North American release of Ali and Toumani, the second and last album pairing two of Mali's greatest musicians, the late guitar virtuoso Ali Farka Touré and kora master Toumani Diabaté. To order your copy, with the exclusive bonus track "Kenouna," visit the Nonesuch Store.

Earlier this month, Pitchfork gave the album an 8.3, calling it "uncommonly beautiful." NPR's All Things Considered dubbed it "beautiful music" as well. Now, on this week's episode of All Songs Considered, NPR's Bob Boilen says this successor to the duo's Grammy-winning In the Heart of the Moon is "another breathtaking disc" from Touré and Diabaté. Listen online at npr.org.

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The Philadelphia Inquirer gives the album four stars, echoing those sentiments and calling it "a quiet, moving, peerlessly beautiful album." Reviewer Steve Klinge sees it as "so colorful and articulate that it never risks disappearing into background music: it's as easy to get lost in telepathic interplay between Touré and Diabaté as to let the songs wash over you in shimmering, transcendent waves." Read the complete four-star review at philly.com.

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The New Jersey Star-Ledger says the new album "is even better than In the Heart of the Moon," starting with the "gorgeous" opening track, "Ruby," on which "Touré’s laconic, bluesy guitar lines meld seamlessly with the chiming lyricism of Diabeté’s kora." Reviewer Bradley Bambarger concludes: "Throughout, there is a light-as-a-breeze quality to the music-making—but also a timeless depth, a gentle profundity. It’s irresistible." Read the review at nj.com.

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Dusted magazine, too, finds the album opener exemplary of what's to come on the album. "Touré’s guitar is steady-rolling and mercurial all at once; Diabaté’s kora ripples in graceful patterns, with the occasional rhapsodic melodic run delivered with composed and offhand virtuosity," says reviewer Kevin Macneil Brown. "It’s as if we are hearing two musicians who have refined the best and most ideal aspects of their personalities and shaped them into musical expression. It’s the sort of thing that only the most highly-developed artist can aspire to, and hearing it happen just gives one the shivers."

There's much more to come as one delves deeper, as "each listening to the record reveals another treasure," says Brown, such that Ali and Toumani can be understood as "a quiet, intimate, timeless record; a transcendent expression of cultural pride, deep friendship, and above all, breath-taking musical colloquy."

Read the complete review at dustedmagazine.com.

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Popdose suggests that some albums are above critical analysis, and Ali and Toumani is one of them. Reviewer Jeff Giles explains that "if you have a functioning soul, you’ll feel it speak to you on a level few pieces of music ever reach."

What's more, the album goes beyond the personal histories of its creators, however compelling they are, says Giles, as the music speaks for itself. Indeed, the listener does not need "even the slightest appreciation for Malian music to feel the warmth and beauty of these performances," he suggests. "They settle on your heart like the sun."

There's much more at popdose.com.