HAILU MERGIA AND HIS CLASSICAL INSTRUMENT

Shemonmuanaye 1985

Mergia’s first recording after his arrival in the US saw him in one-man-band mode, improvising in his trademark Ethiopian modes on Minimoog, Fender Rhodes, melodica and accordion over a brittle drum machine. The results occasionally sound like the theme to Acorn Antiques, but for the most part this is wonderfully odd, hypnotic, space-age electronica, like an Ethiopian Orthodox wedding soundtracked by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. 8/10 JOHN LEWIS