traditional music always strikes a chord with me. with instruments that only a select few still know how to play, richly layered percussions, vocal scaling, story-telling, intricate compositions, throws, echoes, the call, the response. it all resonates within me. it takes me home.
how do i explain the feeling of home? maybe it's my childhood, listening to my great-grandmother singing devotional ginans in a combination of sanskrit and gujarati...
or growing up with my columbian nanny, who taught me to communicate in spanish and produce sounds that don't exist in the english language...
or listening to the lyrical arabic prayers recited at the mosque...
or spiritual chanting radiating out of aboriginal tradition that i came to love as a child while traveling to western canada each year...
and i forgot to mention: i'm a sucker for hand-claps.
gela is a track taken from abysinnia infinite, which is ethiopian soul and roots music. it's a collaboration between ethiopian ejigayehu "gigi" shibabaw and (her husband) producer and label owner, bill laswell.
you may not 'get' gela at first, but if you listen to it three times quickly, like three clicks of dorothy's red shoes in the land of oz, you may just be transported home.
gigi shibabaw - gela:
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