"i've been obsessed with ethio-jazz for years, and this mix is the result of sitting with these sounds until they became part of my own vocabulary. it's not a standard overview; it's a patient, heavy movement through the emotional foundations of this music.

i wanted to start in total isolation, using emahoy's piano to teach the listener how to be still, before entering the deep ache of tezeta, which is pure nostalgia, memory and the ambassel scale, the literal foundation of the pentatonic system.

the rest of the set is about raw friction and escalation. sliding in kamal kiela's sudanese nile-swing was a deliberate choice to break the addis core, bringing a sudden warmth right before the music ignites and hits the abrasive shock of "musicawi silt." because there is no live mixing, the transitions rely entirely on tonal collision. the silence between the tracks, the dust on the recordings, and the sudden drops which are completely intentional."