Kayhan Kalhor, from Iran, is the leading player of the kamancheh, the Persian spike fiddle. Played kneeling down, Kayhan says it’s “like riding a wild horse”. It has four strings played with a short bow. He’s collaborated with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, Kronos Quartet, Shujaat Khan, Erdal Erzincan, the Rembrandt Trio and many others. Toumani Diabaté, from Mali, is likewise the leading player of the West African kora, a 21-string harp-lute and a sublime creation of gourd, cow skin and fishing line. He’s won three Grammys and recorded with Ballaké Sissoko, Taj Mahal, Ali Farka Touré, Björk and the London Symphony Orchestra. This is Kayhan’s first collaboration with an African musician. “The qualities of minimalism and trance that I like in Persian music are also there in Toumani’s,” says Kayhan. “That’s how I like to think and tell a story. That quality in African music has always attracted me and I think Toumani does that really well.”