Ethiopiques, Vol. 21: Ethiopia Song
There is something about Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou’s music that is cozy and intimate, like you’re wrapped in a blanket, listening to her play the piano in her living room. After her dreams of becoming a full time musician were dashed, Guèbrou became a nun and retreated from the world to a remote monastery, where she kept playing her delicate, dreamy compositions. Her music is influenced both by her western classical training and the modal chants of the Orthodox church she grew up in and sang in, and in its simplicity is able to stir the most primal of emotions.