An offering of love.
A call to collective action.
A remembering of and return to reverence.
A global ritual as Humanity undergoes a metamorphosis.
Song Descriptions
FORIBALE is a genre-defying sonic offering that weaves ancestral wisdom, elemental alchemy, and spiritual invocation into a deeply personal and collective journey of remembrance. Rooted in Yorùbá cosmology and guided by the Orisha, the album channels the energies of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water through layered instrumentation, vocal transmission, and story-rich composition—moving like ritual: intimate, cinematic, and timeless.
Created in collaboration with producer Tristan de Liège and select featured artists, the album is at once a ceremonial prayer, a sonic healing, and a reclaiming of identity through rhythm, language, and breath. “Foribale” itself means “to bow down” in Yorùbá—an embodied act of reverence and surrender that lives at the heart of this work. With hypnotic arrangements, sacred lyricism, and multidimensional textures, FORIBALE invites listeners into a liminal space where memory becomes medicine and spirit, story, and sound converge.
Meet the Collaborators
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Role: Composer, Producer, Mixing Engineer, Bass Guitar, Co-Writer (Ile Aiye, Ile Aye,” “Ilẹ, Ayọ Ọya”)
Bio: Tristan de Liège is a Belgian electronic/downtempo artist currently based in Los Angeles, California. He writes and produces under several monikers, including Thoma (duo with Benjamin Hill) and Tethys (post-classical experiments with a changing cast of string musicians). He’s also contributed ambient music to the independent game Faeria. He has released three albums (two as Thoma) on Emancipator’s Loci Records: The Diver (2016), Thoma (2017), and Salt Spring (2019). A fourth Thoma album, Ikiru, was released via Audio Network in 2021. Tristan has completed 9 solo albums: Refractions, Usawa, Maisha, Kosame, The Diver, Everything We Are, Tamalpais, Into the Bloom, and Frontiers, each with their own feel, inspirations, and cast of guest musicians. He also has two albums as Tethys, I and II, as well as a string quartet tribute to II. The neoclassical experiments that Tristan explored with his Tethys project have continued into 2021 with a collaborative album with violinist Gregory Allison, entitled A Light for Dark Moments on Gregory's newly created Holy Volcano label. Thoma returned with new material in late 2021, Ikiru, which showcases playful and cinematic strings and woodwinds arrangements.
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Role: Mastering Engineer (all songs), Additional Mixing (Ayọ Ọya)
As a mixing and mastering engineer I really see my position as a supportive role, to take all of the effort and time an artist has put into their music and to push it further into the feeling and sonic world that they've created. It's an honor to work on someone's art, and I do my best to respect what that means. —Jodhi Mather-Pike
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Role: Featured Artist (Kora on “Ayọ Ọya”)
Bio: Amadou Fall is a native to Senegal, West Africa, and comes from a family of musicians; His father, Mamadou Fall was a guitarist who played with several well-known Senegalese musicians one being Baba Maal. Amadou is the one that brought the Kora to his family at the age of 10. The Kora, which is a 21 stringed instrument of fishing line, is made from wood, Calabash (Gourd), cow skin and can best be described as the African Harp. While he was growing up, Amadou’s family lived near the city of Griots (West African storytellers and keepers of tradition). He often visited the house in which the Griots lived and there he was taught how to play a few songs on the Kora. Amadou fell deeply in love with the instrument and went back to his city and built himself one from scratch.
Amadou Fall aka Ame Kora, started his new journey of mastering the art of Kora playing from the little he had learned and the rest has been self-taught. Amadou has been playing Kora for 20 years now and has performed with various artists such as Baba Maal, Fatou Lowbe, Ibrahim Ba, Djembe Rhythm and Irene Tassambendo and many more. He has played extensively on the African continent (Senegal, Mauritania, Congo, Burkina Faso, Mali, Togo, Benin, and Ivory Coast. Amadou has also been sought out and played in other parts of the world such as France, Belgium, Italy, Hungary, England, Canada, Mexico, Czech Republic as well as the United States. Amadou has also participated in several recorded albums for music artists from around the globe.
Amadou Fall currently resides in Rancho Mirage, California where he hopes to bring people from all walks of life together in peace with music from Africa, all through the breath-taking sounds of his Kora.
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Role: Featured Artist (Violin on “Ayọ Ọya”)
Bio: Gregory Allison creates with a single violin a sound that travels across great landscapes. He brings the sensibility of a film composer into a live and intimate setting. His training in South Indian Classical music brings a melodic fluency and emotional fire to his compositions while his Western Classical training is apparent in the wide sonic palette that he creates. He is a sound shaper. His violin goes from intimate weeping to orchestral soundscapes, carrying the listener on a journey all the way.
A composer, multi-instrumentalist, and actor who performs in a wide variety of styles and genres, Greg is originally from Madison, WI where he began studying piano at age 5 and violin at 9. In high school he used his classical violin training as a springboard for learning about improvising, jazz, world music traditions. He started playing the mandolin and his studies on the instrument landed him a four-year scholarship at the Berklee College of Music in Boston where he completed a degree in Composition. After college he moved to Vermont and was a founding member of the ME/2 Orchestra, a nationally-recognized full orchestra based in Burlington, VT created for people with mental disabilities and those who support them. He also performed in the traditional middle eastern music ensemble Grup Anwar, and travelled to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with the Vermont theater troupe Spielpalast Cabaret. In Portland, OR he opened a private studio teaching violin, viola, mandolin, and piano while performing over 200 shows a year with Three for Silver, Eliza Rickman, as a sideman for various local bands, and as a studio musician. He has received two U.S. State Department grants to tour and teach in Russia.
In 2018 he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a solo performing, recording, and film scoring career. He formed the acoustic trio RAQIA who will be releasing their second studio album next year. His first solo album is due out in early 2021.
FORIBALE is more than an album—it’s an experience. Engage with it as sound, ceremony, and embodied education through the offerings below.
Experience the full sonic journey on your favorite platform.
Invite FORIBALE into your event, space, or sacred gathering.
Explore an earth-centered workshop experience rooted in spirit, story, and embodied practice.
Access the FORIBALE activation inside Simply Spiritual to participate in the living prayer.
