Kolonel Djafaar - Getaway

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 198, June 2024.

Kolonel Djafaar
Getaway
Batov Records (41 mins)

The simplest and most common description of Kolonel Djafaar’s sound is as a meeting of Ethiojazz and Afrobeat. And that’s true: the Ethiopian side is clear in those distinctive pentatonic scales, the Nigerian in the use of the small but meaty horn section (baritone and tenor saxophones, trumpet, occasional trombone), and the rhythms are a tight mix of Yoruba and Afro-Latin styles beloved of Fela and Mulatu, respectively. There’s a lot more to Getaway than that, though. There’s also a potent strain of Anatolian-Levantine psycho-surf, fluttering in through guitar and synth lines, and delving deeper, there’s nods to reggae, Cuban jazz, Baobab-esque West African dance band, and even an unsettling fairground waltz.

Just reading this list of musical ingredients, you might ho-hum. None of these individual fusions are particularly novel or untested; we’ve heard them before. But here they're polished to a cinematic shine, with no element clashing against the rest. It's very tidy, and it’s all neatly encapsulated in the opener, ‘Urban Dweller’ – a great intro to the album, showing off the breadth of the band’s explorations without feeling overloaded. The album ends on a pretty abrupt fade-out, a small disappointment when it feels like the musicians could jam out for much longer.

Sahra Halgan - Hiddo Dhawr

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 197, May 2024.

Sahra Halgan
Hiddo Dhawr
Danaya Music (48 mins)

Sahra Halgan is a hero of Somaliland’s music. At home, in the unrecognised Somali state’s capital Hargeisa, she runs the Hiddo Dhawr (‘promoting culture’) club, the first live music venue since the country declared independence in 1991. Abroad, she is taking Somali music to new places, literally and metaphorically. Her fourth album, also Hiddo Dhawr, is her best so far.

Halgan’s vibrato-heavy voice brings forth songs that speak of love and politics – often simultaneously – wrapped in the proverbs and poetics for which Somalis are so famous. But while Halgan keeps everything rooted in the Somali heritage, her France-based band introduce widespread influences, most notably from the other side of the African continent. Maël Salètes’ guitar and Aymeric Krol’s percussion reflect the sounds of the Songhai and Tuareg of northern Mali. That connection of East and West – a surprising So-Mali-Land fusion – works really well, the two areas united across the Sahara by bluesy pentatonics and laid-back grooves. The quartet is completed by Régis Monte, whose keys consciously echo the classic-era Somali pop of the 70s and 80s, and add some devilishly funky basslines whenever appropriate.

In Hiddo Dhawr, Halgan and her group rollick through up-and-dance tunes and brood over romantic laments – a testament to Somaliland’s distinctive and flexible musical culture and its champion’s forward-thinking and ceaseless advocacy.

Ann O’aro - Bleu

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 197, May 2024.

Ann O’aro
Bleu
Buda Musique (53 mins)

Ann O’aro’s voice is breathtaking, heartbreaking. Gentle, but with great power behind it that occasionally erupts in a shocking flash… Her music has been a revelation. An enigmatic mix of classical-inspired jazz, chanson and the maloya of her homeland, La Réunion – the latter often present only in the subtleties of the voice and the rhythms of the percussion, but sometimes taking whole songs in its swirl. There is a darkness in the beauty, with unsettling sonic atmospheres reflecting the songs’ disturbing topics. But it is beauty nonetheless.

Bleu is O’aro’s third album; her previous, 2020’s wonderful Longoz, was made with a sparse trio completed by Teddy Doris on trombone and Bino Waro on percussion. The sound is bigger now: O’aro adds piano for the first time, and the trio is expanded to a quartet with the ‘machines’ of Brice Nauroy, which include electronic sounds, effects, drones and elements of musique concrète. Overdubs create trombone choirs and interweaving vocal lines, but the group retains the intimacy of a chamber ensemble. Her accompanists are inspired, but it is the solo songs, with just O’aro and her piano, that are the most affective, the most touching. With Bleu, Ann O’aro continues to go from strength to strength.

Arushi Jain - Delight

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 196, April 2024.

Arushi Jain
Delight
Leaving Records (43 mins)

With 2021’s Under the Lilac Sky, Arushi Jain announced herself as a gifted alchemist of electronica and Hindustani music through her mastery of modular synthesizers and classically-trained singing. The concept then was sunsets; now she turns her focus to her personal philosophy of ever-present delight, to be found wherever one seeks it.

This whole album is an exploration of Raga Bageshri, with its implications of love and longing, but the classical element is diffused within flows of downtempo and ambient techno. Jain adds acoustic instruments to her soundscape for the first time – strings, saxophone, flute and marimba all evolve through production to become extensions of the synths. Her voice, too, is warped with a dreamy, reverb-heavy treatment. The distinction between acoustic and electric is never quite clear, the organic and synthetic working together as one organism.

There is a surreal joy inherent in this music, a wonder at all the creative, positive futures we can imagine for ourselves, echoing the ‘utopian scholastic’ aesthetic that will give 90s kids a healthy dose of nostalgia. The optimism is so refreshing! It’s such a feeling of relief. With the world out of balance in so many, seemingly ever-increasing ways, an album that revels in and radiates so much positivity is… well, it’s a delight.

Emahoy Tsege-Mariam Gebru - Souvenirs

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 196, April 2024.

Emahoy Tsege-Mariam Gebru
Souvenirs
Mississippi Records (36 mins)

The world lost a unique composer with the passing of Emahoy Tsege-Mariam Gebru at the age of 99 last year. Her beguiling piano melodies that mix Ethiopian and European classical and religious music marked her as a true original. Now, Souvenirs shows a different side of her music.

This is the first full release of Tsege-Mariam’s vocal music, home recordings of her singing her own songs in Amharic, accompanied by that unmistakable piano. Recorded in Addis Ababa between 1977 and 1985, these are special recordings, and emotional ones too – one need only listen to the opener ‘Clouds Moving on the Sky’ to feel it. We also hear some of her most Ethiopian moments here: ‘Ready to Leave’ is a tizita, a song of wistful yearning and loss, and it’s almost as if the piano takes the role of a giant krar lyre.

These are lovely songs. However, whether it is because of the lyrics-focussed nature of these pieces or the less-optimal quality of the amateur recordings, this set doesn’t quite give the revelatory, otherworldly experience of Tsege-Mariam’s solo piano works. Nevertheless, Souvenirs remains a special, touching album that adds to the beautiful legacy of a much-missed musical genius.

Mukdad Rothenberg Lankow - Just Leave It All Behind

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 196, April 2024.

Mukdad Rothenberg Lankow
Just Leave It All Behind
Clermont Music (41 mins)

Music doesn’t have to have words in order to say something. Just Leave It All Behind sees three instrumentalists coming together to improvise for peace.

This is the second album from a group collaboration that has been bubbling for years. Each participant is multiply-hyphenate in their work: Wassim Mukdad is a doctor, an oud player and an anti-torture campaigner; David Rothenberg is a professor of philosophy, a clarinettist and an interspecies sound artist; Volker Lankow is a nurse, a percussionist and an aid worker for Médecins sans Frontières. Together, their music-flow touches the worlds of Levantine classical, jazz, acoustic-ambient and even blues.

Although the album is entirely instrumental, its music is inextricably entangled with the importance of human rights and the trio’s yearning for peace – for which this release is as timely as any. In the accompanying notes, the artists say ‘these improvisations represent the belief that art can help us get beyond the darkest impulses of humanity.’ However, the end result feels less provocative than that mission statement implies. The musicians and their abilities combine well – this would undoubtedly be a lovely collaboration to experience live, but in an album setting it somewhat lacks a coherent through-narrative. This set is a clarion call for human good, with multiple beautiful moments, but perhaps not as powerful as its message deserves.

Bounaly - Dimanche à Bamako

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 194, January/February 2024.

Bounaly
Dimanche à Bamako
Sahel Sounds (47 mins)

If that title sounds familiar, it probably is: this album shares its name with Amadou & Mariam’s 2005 masterwork – both albums honour the Malian capital’s famous Sunday displays where weddings, street parties and other celebrations blanket the city with colour, food, extravagant dress and, of course, music.

This is Songhai guitarist Ali ‘Bounaly’ Traoré’s first full-length release, and it was recorded live, right in the middle of a Bamako Sunday. But he isn’t from Bamako; he hails from the north of Mali, from Niafunké, where so many guitar greats have come before him. He is one of the capital’s many internally-displaced northerners, whose numbers have grown dramatically since the outbreak of civil war in 2012. Those people need to party – that’s Bounaly’s job.

His rocked-up, cosmopolitan takamba sends the crowds wild. The group here consists of two vocalists, drum kit and calabash, but it’s that raw and roaring guitar that carries it. Extended, effects-soaked solos, blasted out of a distorted PA and competing with the sounds of cheering fans and playing children – it’s electric in every sense of the word. Hendrix once again casts his long shadow, as does Ali Farka Touré and Bounaly’s uncle Afel Bocoum, ending up with something akin to Songhoy Blues at their most rough and ready.