Inspiration Information
The third in Strut’s Inspiration Information studio collaboration series brings together an intriguing pairing between one of Africa’s great bandleaders, Mulatu Astatke, with the next level musicianship of The Heliocentrics.
Artist: Mulatu Astatke & The Heliocentrics
Genre: African Jazz
Label: K7
Release date:
Known primarily through the successful ���Ethiopiques�۪ album series and the film soundtrack to Jim Jarmusch�۪s ���Broken Flowers�۪, Mulatu Astatke is one of Ethiopia�۪s foremost musical ambassadors. Informed by spells living and studying in the UK and the USA, his self-styled Ethio-jazz sound flourished during the ���Swinging Addis� era of the late ���60s as he successfully fused Western jazz and funk with traditional Ethiopian folk melodies, five tone scale arrangements and elements from music of the ancient Coptic church.
The Heliocentrics have become known as one of the UK�۪s foremost free-thinking collectives of musicians, inspired by a wide palette covering Sun Ra, James Brown, David Axelrod and all manner of psych, Afro and Eastern sounds. Now a fixture within the Stones Throw / Now Again roster, they forged their own genre-breaking directions in the astral analogue groove on their 2007 debut album, ���Out��There�۪.
��� It�۪s like going back to the feel of the ���60s, it really feels like that,� explains Mulatu. ���There�۪s a new composition, ���Cha Cha�۪, and ���Dewel�۪, heavily influenced by an Ethiopian Coptic Church composer called Yard. The band took it and added what they feel. It�۪s a nice experiment.���
The Heliocentrics have become known as one of the UK�۪s foremost free-thinking collectives of musicians, inspired by a wide palette covering Sun Ra, James Brown, David Axelrod and all manner of psych, Afro and Eastern sounds. Now a fixture within the Stones Throw / Now Again roster, they forged their own genre-breaking directions in the astral analogue groove on their 2007 debut album, ���Out��There�۪.
��� It�۪s like going back to the feel of the ���60s, it really feels like that,� explains Mulatu. ���There�۪s a new composition, ���Cha Cha�۪, and ���Dewel�۪, heavily influenced by an Ethiopian Coptic Church composer called Yard. The band took it and added what they feel. It�۪s a nice experiment.���
Credit:��Mulatu Astatke Bandcamp
About the artist
The pioneer of Ethio jazz, Mulatu Astatke developed his sound through studies in the UK during the ‘50s and a series of seminal recordings for domestic label Amha before travelling to New York to record the ‘Mulatu Of Ethiopia’ album. Since collaborating with The Heliocentrics in 2009 for Strut, he has continued recording and is a major draw on the global touring circuit.
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