v.a. - The Ethiopian Millennium Collection [CD 4 - Traditional] [2007] [ethiopia]

     The golden age of Ethiopian popular music (as heard on the fabled ETHIOPIQUES series) is famous in part for the sparsity of material that it yielded: The state-owned recording industry was largely a ramshackle government vanity, and while music of the music it captured was strikingly haunting, only a few dozen tracks were recorded in the 1960s and '70s... 

Shambel Belayneh - Yezenaye

       Since then, the floodgates have opened as Ethiopia has more or less entered the modern world -- more artists are making and recording more music than was dreamed possible back in the politically repressive "good old days," and the fruits of this renaissance are heard on this 6-CD set. 

      The tracks are from the late 1990s and early '00s -- the artists are generally younger, more modern musicians, although a few old-timers like Mahmoud Ahmed are still alive and kicking, and sound as cool as ever. Although this collection doesn't have the same eerie power as the '70s-era recordings, anyone who got into the ETHIOPIQUES discs will want to check this out as well, to see where the music has gone since then.

01 - Shambel Belayneh - Kalem Alemnew (7:47)

02 - Rahel Yohannes - Menelik (5:37)

03 - Woretaw Wubet - Tey Minew (7:30)

04 - Setegn Atanaw - Dejish Teselife (6:36)

05 - Berhane Haile - Ferait Weyni (3:38)

06 - Shambel Belayneh - Endennesh Endennesh (5:49)

07 - Woretaw Wubet - Ethiopia (5:50)

08 - Rahel Yohannes - Yiwedes Gonder (5:47)

09 - Setegn Atanaw - Gonder (7:40)

10 - Shambel Belayneh - Arheebu (6:17)

11 - Rahel Yohannes - Arada (6:24)

12 - Woretaw Wubet - Woy Dire (7:52)