• Music

    Earthtones & Etsegenet Mekonnen – Selam

    November 20, 2023 - By 

    This is a rather glorious single pairing American DJ Earthtones with Ethiopian singer Etsegenet Mekonnen.  From the release’s Bandcamp site: “Selam is a vision of peace. This collaboration between producer/DJ Earthtones and Ethiopian musician/vocalist Etsegenet Mekonnen features haunting vocals sung in Amharic. Analog & semi-modular synths combine with 909 drums and afrobeats percussion by Earthtones, to weave grooves for Etsegenet’s depth in songwriting, voice and soul. The main version has a dancehall bassline that calls one to movement, while the dub versions evoke mystery amidst long modulated leads + filtered pads.”

  • Music

    László Hortobágyi – Music from Fomal​-​Hoot al​-​Ganoubī 1994​-​2023 [Re​​​-​​​Mix Mastered Version Series Vol. 3]

    November 15, 2023 - By 

    László Hortobágyi is perhaps the best known electronic/experimental music composer to ever come out of Hungary.  Our dear brothers at áMARXE Records have released Music from Fomal​-​Hoot al​-​Ganoubī, a 1991 release, as a remastered edition. From the áMARXE Bandcamp site: “Fomal-hoot al-Ganoubī is a mythological Arabic constellation. It is the planet whose warm milky-mist landscapes are home to the ethereal body-incarnations of deceased Muslim saints and dervishes. When in the XXII century the white man reached the moons of Jupiter and there transformed himself into a floating changeling to populate the stratosphere of Jupiter, in the same way the souls…

  • Music

    R​ü​ü​t – Kirik​ü​ü​t

    October 29, 2023 - By 

    R​ü​ü​t hail from Estonia and offer an incredible take on Estonian ethnic music, modernized for the 21st Century, taking in elements of jazz.  The band describes their music this way: “The band is characterized by mystical atmosphere, intricate harmonic, melodic and rhythmic combinations, precision and a common feel. This is what Rüüt’s music is like.” Thanks to our dear friends at Nordic Notes for hipping us to this release a while ago!

  • Music

    Syriana – H​ā​rim

    October 21, 2023 - By 

    Syriana are an interesting project released by Real World Records.  Here’s the back story, courtesy of the label’s Bandcamp site: “In 2010 Syriana’s album The Road to Damascus presented a musical reflection by Nick Page & Bernard O’Neill of their take on the geopolitical landscape surrounding Syria at the time. Sadly their assertions that a third cold war was being initiated in that region were proved to be true and the conflict and upheaval that followed destroyed much of the rich cultural heritage of the region and dispersed millions of its people. Now in 2023 the new Syriana album 1325…

  • Music

    Hani from Yunnan China – Hani Polyphonic Singing in Yunnan China

    October 10, 2023 - By 

    From our friends at Sublime Frequencies: “Mystic choral beauty drifting far into the outer cosmos, this other worldly traditional music ensemble creates a contemporary-sounding avant-garde vocal fusion combined with strange instrumental accompaniment. The HANI are linguistically derived from the YI branch of the Tibeto-Burmese and number a million and a half in the southern part of Yunnan province in China above Laos and Vietnam where smaller Hani communities also live. As with many other ethnic groups of the area, an original traditional singing pattern is used with each singer adapting the words to the context. The choir that gathers all…

  • Music

    Girma Yifrashewa – My Strong Will

    September 2, 2023 - By 

    Girma Yifrashewa is a graduate of the Yared School of Music in Addis Ababa, and continued his studies at the Sofia State Conservatory of Music in Bulgaria.  This new work of his combines Ethiopian instrumentation with classical music, and it blends together quite well.

  • Music

    Auļi – Ķekat​ā​s

    August 25, 2023 - By 

    Six pipes, three drummers, a bassist and a massive wall of sound are what Latvian band Auļi offer, and this album shows the band collaborating with a score of modern musicians updating a powerful ethnic sound.  According to the Bandcamp site, “this album is dedicated to the Latvian masquerade traditions in winter. Starting from the Winter Solstice and ending with Meteņi.”

  • Music

    Abatwa (The Pygmy) – Why Did We Stop Growing Tall?

    August 12, 2023 - By 

    Glitterbeat Records is the label which should be thanked for publishing The Abatwa, a collection of Pygmy artists from Rwanda.  Here are some notes by album producer Ian Brennan, courtesy of Forced Exposure: “The Abatwa (“pygmy”) tribe is identified as one of the most marginalized, voiceless and endangered populations in Africa. In fact, their name is frequently taken in vain as a generalized slur towards others unrelated to them. Still, many among their group prefer the term to the official, PC mouthful/post-genocidal replacement moniker that they have been straddled with out of clear overcompensation: ‘The people who were left behind…

  • Music

    Jack Mayesh – You Carry My Hope: Judeo​-​Spanish Songs in Los Angeles, Sept. 1942 – Feb. 1943

    August 2, 2023 - By 

    Canary Records is at it again.  As a Los Angelino, I have to say I didn’t know there was much of a Judeo-Spanish community here, though it does make sense, as many Spanish and Mexican families may very well have Sephardic roots hidden from the Catholic majority.  The recordings are spectacular considering the age of the shellacs (thanks to Ian Nagoski’s incredible mastering work), and it’s nice to hear Jack Mayesh crooning in a Spanish from another angle.