AIR SENEGAL

AIR SENEGAL builds on Ben Aylon’s ongoing work in Senegal and follows the musical path he began with the album Xalam in 2021. The album is shaped by many years of returning, working, and living alongside musicians, families, and communities across Senegal. Rather than capturing a single moment, it reflects a long process of shared life, listening, and trust.

At the center of the album is the xalam, the traditional Senegalese string instrument of storytellers, carried through songs that move between devotion, reflection, and everyday experience. The collaborations on this record are rooted in long-term relationships, bringing together voices with deep cultural, spiritual, and social weight. Each of the album’s singles reflects a value central to Senegalese tradition.

Terranga, featuring Cheikh Lo, explores hospitality as a way of life. The song centers on the Senegalese value of teranga, understood not as ceremony but as daily practice through generosity, presence, and making space for others.

Sama Dom, featuring Baye Dame Bou Yaye, focuses on parenthood, responsibility, and blessing. The song reflects the belief that a child carries both the future and the essence of those who raise them, echoing traditions of singing for protection, guidance, and care.

Joxna, featuring Omar Pene and AvevA, draws on spiritual and cosmic imagery carried in Wolof and Amharic. The song moves through ideas of divine giving, grace, and forces that exist beyond human effort or control, linking West and East African spiritual language through voice, melody, and rhythm.

Across the album, the music is shaped by a modern creative impulse rooted in lived experience. The urge to create something new grows directly from time spent with teachers, elders, friends, and families. This process allows the music to develop naturally and honestly, inspiring Ben to push the xalam toward new sounds and textures.