About
Mikey Coltun is a Bass Player, Producer, Composer, and Engineer living in New York City. He currently plays bass with Mdou Moctar, Oumou Sangare, DINS, Steve Gunn, Sessa, Cheick Hamala Diabate, Noura Mint Seymali, Les Rhinoceros, and Yonatan Gat's Dvorak Quartet.
As a part of Mdou Moctar, Coltun played bass on, produced, and recorded the monumental 2019 release ILANA THE CREATOR, and 2021 release AFRIQUE VICTIME, a critically acclaimed album that was voted 2021 Best Album of the year by the New York Times (#5), Pitchfork (#8), Esquire (#1) and The Guardian (#10) as well as featured on NPR's Tiny Desk Concert and on the cover of the February 2022 edition of The Wire. In addition to producing, recording, co-writing and playing bass with Mdou Moctar, Coltun acts as the musical and creative director.
Coltun's music ranges from noise, experimental, rock, improvised, tuareg, bambara, bubu, and soukous. He has created music for Film, TV, and Advertisements including HBO, New York Times, Havas, TEDEd and McCormick Spices among others.
At age 16 Coltun's band, Les Rhinoceros, debuted their self-titled album as part of "The Spotlight Series" on John Zorn's Tzadik label. "The Spotlight Series" was created by Zorn, the father of the Downtown Music Scene, specifically as an opportunity to spotlight Coltun and other young adventurous artists. He continued to support Coltun's music with 2 additional album releases on Tzadik as well as a residency at his music venue "The Stone'' in 2017.
Coltun plays, records, and produces a variety of different artists from the Sahel region of West Africa. Originally traveling to Mali to play bass with Cheick Hamala Diabate for FESTIVAL SUR DE NIGER in 2011, he ended up playing bass with Toumani Diabate and Djelimady Tounkra of the Rail Band. Coltun also conducts field recordings throughout the Sahel as well as records and produces artists in remote rural locations abroad using a mobile rig.
Musicians Coltun has played with include, Janka Nabay and the Bubu Gang, Marisa Nadler, Ikue Mori, Marc Ribot, Sunwatchers, to name a few... He has done records on labels such as Matador, Secretly Canadian, Tzadik, Sacred Bones, Mexican Summer, Electric Cowbell, Sahel Sounds, amongst other indie labels.
.png)