AIYE #60 : Mikael Seifu - Africa In Your Earbuds [ethiopia]

       Mikael Seifu is an Ethiopian electronic music producer & performer. Seifu fuses both the secular Ethiopian music of nomadic folk musicians, known as Azmaris, and the sonics of Tobia with garage & his own dream brew, which he calls “Ethiopian electronic.”

     Born and raised in Addis Ababa, Seifu attended the French school Lycee Guebre-Mariam as a child, and went on to study music production & the music industry at Ramapo College of New Jersey, a small school about 45 minutes outside of Manhattan. Here, Seifu studied under avant-garde composer, trumpeter and inventor of the “Mutantrumpet,” Ben Neill. “He opened me up to another way of thinking about music,” says Seifu.

Mikael Seifu - Yarada Lij

      After his time at Ramapo, Seifu traveled back to Addis Ababa where he currently runs his recording studio, a central hub for the perceptive & open-minded local musicians of Addis Ababa, and continues to cultivate & curate the local electronic & Ethiopian experimental music scene.

His debut EP, Yarada Lij, draws from a long list of musical influences including Ethiopian & African Folk, the Addis Acoustic Project, Ben Neill, Burial, Zion Rebels, Air, Röyksopp, reggae and R.F.

“My music is about vibrations…it does something to me and I want to immediately share that with people. It’s not Eastern, Western, Martian… it’s about that impact. If that impact is not shared, it doesn’t matter.” - Mikael Seifu

       Ethiopian beatsmith Mikael Seifu made his impressive debut this year with the 4-track Yarada Lij EP and loose single “Tuff Ruff” — a striking hybrid of house & UK garage production with secular azmari folk and sacred music traditions of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The Addis Ababa-based producer, who cites labelmate Endeguena Mulu, Burial, traditional Ethiopian folk, and Scott Storch as his influences, is the torch-bearing artist on the newly formed Washington, D.C. imprint 1432 R.What do you think?

      For his Africa In Your Earbuds mixtape, Mikael Seifu delivers an astounding, hazy journey through reinterpreted Ethiopian folk sounds. The producer mentions, “The last two songs are the only unaltered from the mix. I basically went for it and picked artists of Ethiopia or who are Ethiopian. That being said I used bits and pieces of their works and composed on top of that for the mix. One can say the majority of the mix is technically original stuff with it’s major influence and theme being Ethiopian folk."

https://soundcloud.com/okayafrica/africa-in-your-earbuds-60-mikael-seifu

Mikael Seifu - AIYE #60: Mikael Seifu (19:47)

Samples Used For Mix/Tracklist:

Ethiopian Folk

Tommy T - Oromo Dub(Cushitic Dub)

Gash Abera Molla - Enkutatash & other

Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou - The Last Tears of a Deceased

Addis Acoustic Project - Soundcheck at Jazzamba Club

Hailu Mergia - Ambassel

Seifu Yohannes - Yekermo Sew

Zion Rebels ft. Lion Heart Soldiers, Tiger & Black Haze -  Dess Yebelesh

Lema Guebre-Hiwot - Medina Zelessegna