Search - Orchestra Ethiopia :: Ethiopiques 23

"One of the rootsiest sets so far in the Ethiopiques series--a batch of tracks that have a much more ethnographic feel than you might guess from the `orchestra' in the group's name! Although Orchestra Ethiopia flourished during a great modern age of music in their homeland, they were actually dedicated to reviving traditional styles and bringing them to a much larger, younger audience--in modes that are often heavy on percussion, group vocals, and eerie, otherworldly lines on wooden flutes. Although the group recorded a number of albums under the direction of Tesfaye Lemma, the CD features mostly previously unissued recordings by the orchestra--offering up an even rarer slice of their music." -- Dusty Groove The story of Orchestra Ethiopia (1963-1975) is unusual and compelling in more ways than one. Just as modern music was reaching the peak of its excellence and popularity, Orchestra Ethiopia's unlikely undertaking, traditional music acquired a legitimacy that the times had tended to deprive it of. Between the coup d'état (December 1960) and the revolution (1974), Ethiopia was combining both the end of an empire and the "golden age" of its music.