Ali and Toumani, the second and last album pairing guitar virtuoso Ali Farka Touré and kora master Toumani Diabaté, is scheduled for its North American release World Circuit / Nonesuch on February 23 and is now available for pre-order at nonesuch.com with the exclusive bonus track "Kenouna." Yesterday, on NPR's All Things Considered, host Guy Raz spoke with Betto Arcos, the host of Global Village on KPFK Los Angeles, about the new album.

Arcos plays the album track "Sabu Yerkoy," the video for which premiered via All Songs Considered on NPR.org last week and can now be seen at nonesuch.com/media.

"Ali Farka Touré has had a long history of music in Mali," says Arcos, "and this record is a kind of retrospective of some of the music that he started playing back in the early '60s."

Raz describes "Sabu Yerkoy" as "such a beautiful piece of music and so easy to listen to." Arcos later affirms this sentiment by calling it "beautiful music."

You can listen to the All Things Considered segment at npr.org.

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All About Jazz says that, like the preceding album from the duo, In the Heart of the Moon, whcih "showed a level of communication that was close to magical," this new album "certainly join the ranks of recordings that are 'beyond criticism.'" Nevertheless, Nenad Georgievski, in the site's review, says the musician's connection remains as strong as it ever was.

"Ali and Toumani once again shows that the two artists are like minds and their playing is brilliant and most importantly, unified," raves Georgievski. "There is an alchemical connection to their playing that makes it deeply creative."

Read the review at allaboutjazz.com.

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To watch Ali Farka Touré, Toumani Diabaté, and bassist Orlando “Cachaíto” López, of Buena Vista Social Club fame, perform "Sabu Yerkoy," visit nonesuch.com/media. To pre-order the album now, visit the Nonesuch Store.