In 2009, Cuban pianist Omar Sosa collaborated with eight East African musicians, making field recordings in seven countries during a tour of the continent with his Afreecanos Trio. More than a decade later, he went into a Paris studio with a drummer and multi-instrumentalist and added more texture and continuity to those tapes. An East African Journey has no business sounding so multifaceted yet coherent, so pacific and yet impassioned, so in tune with the delicate profundity of good-faith collaboration.

This is Sosa’s métier. He’s won a slew of Grammys, grants, and global awards turning his ongoing exploration of Afro-Cuban music’s roots into his own organic expression. For An East African Journey, his contributions—on piano, kalimba, and percussion, as well as overall pilot of the project—follow a course of discovery and affirmation.