Between 2003 and 2006, Bastien Lagatta, musician and ethnomusicologist, undertook musical researches among the agro-pastoral societies of the Omo valley, thanks to the support of the CNRS, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the UNESCO. For months, he has shared the everyday life of the semi-nomads tribes Nyangatom, Mursi and Bodi, and has taken up the study of their musical repertories. The trek, of several hundred kilometres along the Omo river, in such an amazing natural environment, led him to the heart of Humanity with its peculiar mores, customs and habits.
Greatly endearing, these men and women live in a world whose balance is precarious. These recordings reveal the importance of this patrimonial, cultural and artistic heritage.
Benjamin Goldenstein & Patrick Frémeaux
The Warrior-Shepherds From The Omo Valley - Ethiopia - 01 - Introduction: Troupeaux De Zébus Aux Paturages (1:01)
The Warrior-Shepherds From The Omo Valley - Ethiopia - 02 - Loniyang: Monodie (2:36)
The Warrior-Shepherds From The Omo Valley - Ethiopia - 03 - Loutouleniyang: Monodie (1:49)
The Warrior-Shepherds From The Omo Valley - Ethiopia - 04 - Lopelouk, Suivi De Lobokhiniyang (6:11)
The Warrior-Shepherds From The Omo Valley - Ethiopia - 05 - Lokengkori (1:48)
The Warrior-Shepherds From The Omo Valley - Ethiopia - 06 - Chants Des Vieux Bergers De La Génération Des Élephants (3:35)
The Warrior-Shepherds From The Omo Valley - Ethiopia - 07 - Loumougoulmoye: Chant Collectif Mixte (3:07)
The Warrior-Shepherds From The Omo Valley - Ethiopia - 08 - Chant De Travail: Duo Féminin (2:53)
The Warrior-Shepherds From The Omo Valley - Ethiopia - 09 - Niameley Ye Loporiang (4:40)
The Warrior-Shepherds From The Omo Valley - Ethiopia - 10 - Rienga Rienga Loporiang (6:08)
The Warrior-Shepherds From The Omo Valley - Ethiopia - 11 - Aleke Lokholoya (4:50)
The Warrior-Shepherds From The Omo Valley - Ethiopia - 12 - Flûte Mursi Morou (1:50)
The Warrior-Shepherds From The Omo Valley - Ethiopia - 13 - Oletchay (1:04)
The Warrior-Shepherds From The Omo Valley - Ethiopia - 14 - Naboula Nadongulu (1:44)
The Warrior-Shepherds From The Omo Valley - Ethiopia - 15 - Nangwayna Kara (1:25)
The Warrior-Shepherds From The Omo Valley - Ethiopia - 16 - Badio Laute (1:45)
The Warrior-Shepherds From The Omo Valley - Ethiopia - 17 - Kalalalibosso (1:13)
The Warrior-Shepherds From The Omo Valley - Ethiopia - 18 - Flûtes Morou (2:26)
The Warrior-Shepherds From The Omo Valley - Ethiopia - 19 - Kaenaniye (1:01)
The Warrior-Shepherds From The Omo Valley - Ethiopia - 20 - Komdaye (1:01)
The Warrior-Shepherds From The Omo Valley - Ethiopia - 21 - Ayolo Deguelaye (1:08)
The Warrior-Shepherds From The Omo Valley - Ethiopia - 22 - Noukouregnanineye (1:11)
The Warrior-Shepherds From The Omo Valley - Ethiopia - 23 - ADJenoloynetch (0:35)
The Warrior-Shepherds From The Omo Valley - Ethiopia - 24 - Flûtes Morou (1:02)
The Warrior-Shepherds From The Omo Valley - Ethiopia - 25 - Ambiance De Fête Au Village De Gui Ha (1:14)
The Warrior-Shepherds From The Omo Valley - Ethiopia - 26 - Trompe Trounotey (1:22)
The Warrior-Shepherds From The Omo Valley - Ethiopia - 27 - Danse Et Chant Collectif Mixte Pour Les Troupeaux (1:27)
The Warrior-Shepherds From The Omo Valley - Ethiopia - 28 - Duo Vocal Féminin (5:02)
The Warrior-Shepherds From The Omo Valley - Ethiopia - 29 - Epilogue: À Ce Voyage Musical… (1:05)
The tribal cultures of Eastern Africa, and in fact, the world, are fast disappearing. Within twenty years, Kenya will reach the take-off point of economic development, and by the turn of the century, foreign industrialization will transform the pastoral nomadic way of life in Northern Kenya and Soutbern Ethiopia into a 19th-Century midwestern town. The ties of the people with the land will be broken. A major highway will run through Central Ethiopia bringing tourists and money to a country which does not have enough water for its own people, whose lakes are polluted and infested by lethal worms which produce incurable intestinal disorders.
As the world reaches the 21st-Century, the Ethiopians may not have enough water to drink, much less to wash their clothes. Men in Adis now wear socks and shoes, the children wear paisley shirts, yet in the South, in the semi-desert conditions, life is still survival; the people live from one day to the next trading goods, bartering, and praying for rain for the harvest. The legends of the past are only preserved in song, and the wandering bards are rarely seen,as they work in the fields as much as fifteen hours a day. A medicine man 1s rare, because the spirit of the old religions and customs are not permitted to continue in a culture which is fast breaking its way into the Twentieth Century. Mythology 1s song in Ethiopia, and the song is the experience of life o As the animals die, the songs of the water-hole and the market disappear; the deeds of the warriors who fought the Turks and the Egyptians are silenced forever.
One of the last traditionally Hebraic tribes of Ethiopia, the Falashim live in Ambover, in a village about ten miles ~om Gondar. In order to reach the village, one must either walk seven miles from where the bus stops, or take a Landrover over cow pastures and farming lands, through small valleys and over small hills. Quiet people, the Falashim still worship in the same traditions as their ancestors did 2,000 years ago.
Speaking Geez, the ancient language from which Amhara, the national language of Ethiopia developed, the Falasha worship in a small hut without an altar.
The Kohnian, or prayers, are conducted by the leader, while the other m@mbers chant and singo Geez is also the language used by the Coptic Church for prayer, but at times Hebrew words are interspersed. The
Falasha people used to conduct the service entirely in Hebrew, but since the time of the Sudanese War in 1892, when the Hebrew books were
burned, they have been praying in Geez.
The Falasbim believe that in 586 the first exiles from Babylon came through Egypt to Ethiopiao There are still other conclaves or groups of isolated Falasha who live around Gondar, in the GoJjam Province, but their numbers are steadily decreasing because of intermarriages.
The Falashim or Falasha people migrated from a very substantial community in Jerusalem, during the l7th, l8th and 19th Centuries.
The combination of the Turkish seizure of the Ethiopian seaboard, the plague which ravaged Jerusalem in 1838, and the unacceptance of the Armenians who persecuted the new Turkish subjects, forced the Falashim to flee to their present location.
In Ambover, one of the centers of the Falasha, the people live around the school, which was built in 1970, yet it is not uncommon for a
villager to live on an ajoining hilltop. The Falashim children learn three languages in school: English, Amharic, and Hebrew. Atter they reach the age of fifteen, they must either be accepted by the university in Addis, or go to work in the fields. Extremely poor people, the Falasha depend on the land to survive, yet farming La difficult without machines. The chanting of the Falasha is the celebration of life, and was recorded 8/11/72. The ceremony has rarely been heard.
The Adjuran are a semi-nomadic group of wandering cattle herders who
live north of Isiolo, Kenya, and south of Dilla, Ethiopia, approximately a distance of 500 miles. The small, pastoral agricultural villages are along a road of tar, clay and dirt, which is sometimes non-existant in the mountains of the Maji Province o Part of the Garris Tribe, 'N'hich is Berber, these people make temporary shelters, trade, barter, and raise cattle. Their music is traditional; singers, dancers, religious nomads, Moslems, who raise their hands in trance-like dances, undulate their bodies, inhale/exhale short audible modulations of poly- rhythmic chanting. With their raised arms, the Adjuran hop together, lifting one foot, jumping three or four feet into the air, imitating their camels which graze a short distance awiay, licking a white powder from their hands.
Like the Garris, the Burgia, the Borana, the Adjuran also sing ot the camel, the King, the cow and the baby.The love of man for man is instinctual; it is revealed in the actions of the dance - the ritual play of the animal or man, even before there was speech. The King, Emperor Haile Selassie, is praised as a hero, for letting the people be free (not for letting them live in destitution). Although the tribes are rounded up by the local police and ushered intothe villages for the ceremonial festivities of the Emperor's eightieth birthday, they do not regret coming because they are permitted to eat all the raw meat they can the two-day celebration. Tedj, honey-mead beer, is abundant, and this is the event when camel herders arrive in Moyak to talk, love, reminisce, and barter their goods o The Borana come across the border from Kenya, and the Rindilla sine on the water barrels.
Jewish Community in Gondar, Ethiopia
01 - Members of the Falasha Tribe recorded in Ambover & Ethiopia - Falasha: The Complete Ceremony of Shabbat Shalom (24:15)
Eritrea, ancient province Ethiopia became independent at the beginning of the 90's and has lived a painful history. But nothing has ever prevented the people of Eritrea from singing, and not even the numerous famines. The People of the plain of Zula (Afar, Tigré and Saho) give rhythm to their everyday life in simple, repetitive singings. The leader, man or woman, throws a comment on rhythms (handclaps and kebero percussion), the others start again, insisting on the same rhythmic, as an obsessive loop. History the concern of protecting the culture and politics, stimulates more than a singer. " On one hand, he killed you, whereas on the other one he fed you " tells a Saho about Haile Sélassié. A kebero is a double-headed, conical hand drum used in the traditional music of Eritrea and Ethiopia. A piece of animal hide is stretched over each end, thus forming a membranophone. A large version of the instrument is also used in Orthodox Christian liturgical music, while smaller versions are used in secular celebrations.
Maale are one the 40 ethnic groups of southern Ethiopia.
The Maale music is very rich. It encompasses a cappella polyphonic singing, vocal polyphonies accompanied on the lyre, whistled polyphonies, solo flute playing, flute orchestras, horns, drums, and it displays a great originality in the vocal and instrumental techniques.
For the Maale, music is the mean of a constant exchange between generations. The youngest ('children') praises the eldest ('fathers') and the eldest bless the youngest. Thus the music appears as a strong factor of social cohesion.
01 - Southern Ethiopia - Music of the Maale - Maale Zoro (2:44)
02 - Southern Ethiopia - Music of the Maale - Andalko (5:05)
03 - Southern Ethiopia - Music of the Maale - Abi (4:01)
04 - Southern Ethiopia - Music of the Maale - Dami (4:03)
05 - Southern Ethiopia - Music of the Maale - Irbe wala (2:37)
06 - Southern Ethiopia - Music of the Maale - Haya Haya Bolado (2:46)
07 - Southern Ethiopia - Music of the Maale - Nay malkiti (0:52)
08 - Southern Ethiopia - Music of the Maale - Gaade (4:08)
09 - Southern Ethiopia - Music of the Maale - Meni merti (3:30)
10 - Southern Ethiopia - Music of the Maale - Alo be (2:07)
11 - Southern Ethiopia - Music of the Maale - Shulungo (0:59)
12 - Southern Ethiopia - Music of the Maale - Aleko (3:34)
13 - Southern Ethiopia - Music of the Maale - Ank'ado (1:29)
14 - Southern Ethiopia - Music of the Maale - Are Indo (Pele) (3:42)
15 - Southern Ethiopia - Music of the Maale - Are Indo (Golo) (4:57)
16 - Southern Ethiopia - Music of the Maale - Salo (3:03)
17 - Southern Ethiopia - Music of the Maale - Durungo (1:34)
18 - Southern Ethiopia - Music of the Maale - Irbo Nay Koysi (3:49)
19 - Southern Ethiopia - Music of the Maale - Be Ta Belio & Olize (4:40)
20 - Southern Ethiopia - Music of the Maale - Kaye (1:16)
21 - Southern Ethiopia - Music of the Maale - Sorayti (1:17)
22 - Southern Ethiopia - Music of the Maale - Makanka dorba (2:40)
23 - Southern Ethiopia - Music of the Maale - Osta (2:59)
traditional music ensemble of the ras theatre - yaniti (4:35) traditional music ensemble of the ras theatre - ethiopia adei (3:30) traditional music ensemble of the ras theatre - our country (3:57) traditional music ensemble of the ras theatre - dedero (3:29) traditional music ensemble of the ras theatre - yabishan bira (5:55) traditional music ensemble of the ras theatre - peace to the proletariat (2:48) traditional music ensemble of the ras theatre - belew belew (3:59) traditional music ensemble of the ras theatre - the militant communist (3:52) traditional music ensemble of the ras theatre - rebahel zemeslar (3:22) traditional music ensemble of the ras theatre - tizita (3:41)
recorded by Vincent Moon & Jacob Kirkegaard in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, june 2012 mixed by Jacob Kirkegaard 1. - The Harp of King David 08:19 2. - The Harp of King Jacob 04:41
Born in 1965 in Addis-Abeba, Betsat Seyoum Abrha began in 1985 in a couple of the many bars in the capital before opening her own cabaret in 1990, which has now become one of the most popular in Addis. She aspires to the glory of the modern pioneers of Ethiopian music who play with synthesizers, saxophones, and rhythm boxes, while remaining faithful to the essence of the azmari art.
In opposition to Betsat who has not inherited her gift from any family member, Abbebe Fekade comes from a long line of azmaris from the Gondar region, one that has always been the source of a large portion of the country's musicians. He acknowledges his longing for "modernity", but he also knows how to express all the admiration that he holds for the venerable and venerated azmaris like Yirga Dubale and Bahru Qenie.
In Ethiopian musical tradition, an azmari is a wandering entertainer, a minstrel, or a travelling troubadour who crisscrosses through the Christian regions of the country with his voice and instrument. He is the priviledged vector of popular music and is as fundamental in Ethiopian society as are the griot in Mandingo countries or the lautar in Moldo-Valachia.
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