Hailu Mergia & His Classical Instrument: Shemonmuanaye

In the early 1980s legendary Ethiopian band Walias Band wound up on tour in the United States. With the overthrow that rocked the nation in the 1970s, and the devastating civil war and famine that followed in the 1980s, a few members – including keyboardist Hailu Mergia – defected mid-tour. Driving a cab around Washington, D.C. and feeling homesick, Mergia recast Ethiopian melodies on accordion and an array of new home studio gear: electric organs, Moog, Rhodes, and drum machine, carefully layering it into an enchanting new vision of Ethiopian music. The results were sublime, warm, twinkling, and thoroughly charming, and  while the original 1984 cassettes reached few ears at the time, a rediscovery in the early 21st century led the Awesome Tapes from Africa label to reintroduce Mergia to a broad new audience.

In Ethiopia Hailu Mergia had spent years playing in Addis’ high class Hilton Hotel with his ethio-jazz and funk band The Walias, but in the early 1980s he moved to the United States in the face of a changing political climate at home. Here he decided to record an album celebrating the vintage accordion sounds of his youth, but upon entering the studio he discovered a drum machine, a Rhodes piano, and a Yamaha DX7 synthesizer, which he decided to play alongside his accordion. The resulting album is a dreamy, quietly hypnotic synthesis of Ethiopian melodies, jazz, and minimalistic touches of analog synth. At once evocative, traditional, and futuristic.