Ethiopia: African Futurism

Described simply as “postmodern Ethiopian pop,” this album is actually something of a mystery. Bassist and producer Bill Laswell is married to an Ethiopian musician, the wonderful singer Ejigayehu Shibabaw (a.k.a. Gigi), and perhaps because of that connection he was apparently sent a bunch of tracks by various Ethiopian artists and asked to do some production work on them. But then whoever sent them to him disappeared, and he was left with some wonderful music but little or no information about where it had come from or even who the musicians were. In fact, only two artists are named: the singer Teddy Afro (whose reggae-inflected “Africaye” is an album highlight) and Gigi herself, who contributed a lovely song called “Bante.” All of this makes the program a bittersweet listening experience: you’d love to hear more from so many of these artists, but since we don’t even know who they are…