Label: Ocora – OCR 75 Format: Vinyl, LP Country: France Released: Folk, World, & Country Style: African
Devastating collection of traditional music from the crucial Ocora imprint with their Musiques Ethiopiennes collection, which focuses on the traditional music of the East African nation of Ethiopia. You'd be forgiven for knowing nothing about traditional Ethiopian music, or even for thinking it extends little past the recent surge in interest Ethio-jazz (Mulatu, Mahmoud, etc), yet once again through extensive field-work, Ocora manage to get their scalpel out and reveal a musical world that shatters and fragments every time you delve deeper. Here, guided by the comprehensive liner notes, we're given diverse, revealing examples of traditional pieces from Amhara and Tigray regions, as well as examples of the notorious improvised story telling practicing in the country's Azmari bets, sung in Amharic, along with the distinctive pentatonic chug which naturally carries a sense of exoticism and otherworldliness. Yet what this collection highlights the best is the fact that the deeper you dig, the less you realise you know. (VG+/VG+)
Tracklist A1 Chant De Louange Sur La Beauté Des Femmes 3:22 A2 Musique De "Tej Beit" 3:15 A3 Hymne Avec "Bagana" 3:05 A4 Chant D'Amour 13:25 B1 Chant Avec Tambours 4:53 B2 Chant De Travail Dorzé 3:30 B3 Harpe Nuer 3:00 B4 Sanza "Toum" 2:42 B5 Flute Afar 1:35 B6 "Jinele", Chant Afar De Divination 6:10 B7 Danse "Fila" Avec Flute 2:21
