The third in Strut’s Inspiration Information studio\ncollaboration series brings together an intriguing pairing between\none of Africa’s great bandleaders, Mulatu Astatke, with the next\nlevel musicianship of The Heliocentrics collective from the mighty\nroster of Stones Throw / Now Again.

\n

Known primarily through the successful ‘Ethiopiques’ album\nseries and the film soundtrack to Jim Jarmusch’s Broken\nFlowers, Mulatu Astatke is one of Ethiopia’s foremost musical\nambassadors. Informed by spells living and studying in the UK and\nthe USA, his self-styled Ethio-jazz sound flourished during the\nSwinging Addis era of the late ‘60s as he successfully fused\nWestern jazz and funk with traditional Ethiopian folk melodies,\nfive tone scale arrangements and elements from music of the ancient\nCoptic church.

\n

The Heliocentrics have become known as one of the UK’s foremost\nfree-thinking collectives of musicians, inspired by a wide palette\ncovering Sun Ra, James Brown, David Axelrod and all manner of\npsych, Afro and Eastern sounds. Now a fixture within the Stones\nThrow / Now Again roster, they forged their own genre-breaking\ndirections in the astral analogue groove on their 2007 debut album,\n_Out There_.

\n

The recording liaison took place thanks to some inspired\nprogramming by Karen P for her ‘Broad Casting’ session at Cargo in\nLondon on 17th April 2008. Securing Mulatu for his first UK live\ndate in over 15 years, she called on The Heliocentrics to back the\nmaestro and, with only a day of rehearsal, they tore the place up\nwith a series of original Mulatu classics, chalking up one of the\nmost memorable gigs of the year. The show itself was recorded for\nRed Bull Music Academy Radio (Mulatu has been involved with the\nAcademy for some time) and is still available to listen to\non-demand at www.rbmaradio.com A Gilles Peterson Maida Vale session\nfollowed for BBC Radio One.

\n

The new recording is a mouth-watering prospect. Driven by groove\nand melody ideas exchanged upfront of the sessions, the bulk of the\nalbum was laid down at Quatermass studios, an analogue HQ in East\nLondon during 8th to 14th September 2008, a week of frenetic\nwriting and recording. Alongside Mulatu, London-based Ethiopian\nmusicians including Dawit Gebreab, Yezina Nagash, Mesafnit Nagash\nand Temesgen Taraken guested on several tracks, contributing\ntraditional sounds using instruments like the krar (a six-stringed,\nfive tone instrument), washint (a flute traditionally made from\nbamboo) and Begena (a ten string instrument dating back to the 15th\ncentury, sometimes referred to as “David’s Harp”).

\n

Joel Yennior from Boston’s Either Orchestra scored and arranged\nthe horn lines on the fly and the Heliocentrics overdubbed and\narranged each track following the main recording period, adding the\nindividual production touches to each piece of music. The result is\na true fusion of styles. At times the feel is reminiscent of\nMulatu’s earlier recordings, at others The Heliocentrics sound cuts\nthrough with Mulatu bringing his haunting vibes lines into more\nexperimental territory as the band whip up their own fresh\nEthio-hybrid.

\n

Mulatu: “There are new compositions like, ‘Cha Cha’, and\n‘Dewel’, heavily influenced by an Ethiopian Coptic Church composer\ncalled Yard. The band took it and added what they feel. It’s a nice\nexperiment.”

\n

The Heliocentrics: “We haven’t tried to recreate an\n‘Ethiopiques’ LP, this is more a collision of both our musical\nworlds, complete with the diverse influences and experiences that\nthe alliance encompasses, a true exchange of ideas and influence.\nSomething new, grounded in something old.”

\n\n