ALI FARKA TOURÉ Savane World Circuit ****

Call it his last will and testament. In the weeks before his death from cancer in March, desert blues maestro Ali Farka Touré was fine-tuning Savane, recorded in 2004 during hectic sessions in Bamako, which also produced his In the Heart of the Moon collaboration with Toumani Diabaté.

Touré knew the end was near, which perhaps explains the extraordinary soul and depth that informs every single groove on Savane. The more you listen, the more you're fascinated by the effortless, ethereal magic which Touré and his ngoni and guitar band produce. Maybe Touré had saved the best till last. By the time he began working on Savane, he had nothing left to prove to anyone. The Malian musician's adventures with the blues had received as much rapturous international acclaim and attention as he could handle. Back in Bamako, recording with a band as skilled and as alive to the possibilities of traditional sonics as himself, Touré cut loose like never before.

There's so much to relish here, from the giddy, weathered blues that drive Ledi Coumbe to the natural, unhurried lament of Njarou. But mostly it's the sense of a musical one-off bringing it all back home with one final flourish. Touré's music began on the banks of the River Niger. It's fitting that it should end there, too. www.worldcircuit.co.uk