Tilaye Gebre - Tilaye’s Saxophone with the Dahlak Band
Many years ago now, we sent you a pink and yellow album by the Ethiopian musician Hailu Mergia. That's probably one of your favorite albums in your whole collection — and it's good, and it never gets old. This gorgeous album you now hold in your hands features not only the same colorful artwork, but also the same amazing backup band: the one and only Dahlak Band. Here, they are led by the famed and classically trained Ethiopian arranger, composer, saxophonist, and Dahlak Band founding member Tilaye Gebre. The washy, haunting drone of the Dahlak Band — some of which can be attributed to the recording equipment, a single mic in front of the band recorded onto cassette — is one of my favorite sounds. It soothes me and slows my heart down, and who couldn't use a little of that right now.
Eduardo Anacone - Pitalito, Colombia
We normally like to pair coffees and records from the same origin, but the best we could do this month was origin and the distant Ethiopian genetics of this Colombian Gesha (“working on it,” etc.). This lot comes to us from Eduardo Anacone, a regular contributor to a producer group Tandem has bought from over the years. We get a mild but satisfying expression of Gesha, lightly floral with soft citrus accents and simple structured sweetness.
