Abraham Afewerki - Semai [2006] [eritrea]

     R   E   U   P   L   O   A   D    

       Abraham Afewerki (1966-2006), an Eritrean singer, song writer, and music producer died in an accident on the Dahlak Islands, in the Red Sea cost of Eritrea. He was 40 years old. In addition to his humble personality, Abraham was one of the most gifted contemporary Eritrean musical artist, a genius of Tigrinya music writer, and a unique Tigrinya lyricist. Abraham was one of the most recognized figures among Eritrean musicians and celebrities.

        Abraham Afewerki is described as an Eritrean musical tour-de-force. Held in high regard by his fellow Eritrean artists his work garners appreciation and admiration from his peers. His musical influence also crosses borders to Eritrea’s neighboring countries where his music is reproduced by other musicians singing in a different language other than his native Tigrinya.

Abraham was born in Asmara, Eritrea. From an early age Abraham was fascinated with musical instruments and by age nine had learned to play a musical instrument independently. Due to the Eritrean War of Independence Abraham, with his family, fled to Sudan and soon after to Italy where he further pursued his dream to be a professional musician. While studying in Rome, Abraham continued to expand his musical skills by working with internationally known musical celebrities in live performances as well as recording

Abraham’s first CD, Kozli Gaba was released in 1991, which was produced and distributed by Virgin Records in Europe. The album was the first by an Eritrean artist that was produced by 

an International recording company and made available to the global audience. Abraham’s music, in due course, was covered by a number of International media outlets.

During the following 15 years Abraham released two more albums which further propelled his popularity among Eritreans. His songs were popular because his lyrics expressed strong and poetic images of Eritrea’s culture. His socially conscious words were evocative and his fans often described his music as inspiring. Abraham is also credited with being one of Eritrea’s master live entertainers.

In his newest CD titled Semai ("Sky" in Tigrinya), Abraham collaborates with several Eritrean musicians, the result of which was an exquisite sound. Abraham continued to blend his music with jazz, R&B, and Reggae rhythms at the same time maintaining his music’s originality and authenticity.

While still continuing his progress in music, the multi-faceted artist, who was residing in the USA, had managed to obtain a BS degree (Bachelor of Science degree) in MIS (Management Information Systems), graduating with honors. Abraham, undoubtedly one of the greatest artist and stage performers, will be REALLY deeply missed by his countless funs, friends and families.

Albums : 

So far he has released 4 official cassettes (albums) in Eritrea

"Wegahta"     (Dawn or Sunrise) - 1991

"Tesfa'iya snqey"     (Hope is my supply or kit) - 1994

"MsTir fQri"      (Secret of Love) - 1998

"Semai"     (Sky - aka The Sky is My Limit ) - 2006

Yemane Kidane - Yeaklena [2016] [eritrea]

Yemane Kidane - 01 - Yeaklena (6:13)
Yemane Kidane - 02 - Karibu (5:59)
Yemane Kidane - 03 - Sidet (5:32)
Yemane Kidane - 04 - Asho Asila (5:40)
Yemane Kidane - 05 - Haqi nebala misikir iya (5:01)
Yemane Kidane - 06 - Mother (6:06)
Yemane Kidane - 07 - Tefkireni Zineberet (5:12)
Yemane Kidane - 08 - Tibeb (3:56)
Yemane Kidane - 09 - Peace & Love (3:28)

Elsa Kidane - Tezezta Fiqri vol. 3 [2007] - [eritrea]

Elsa Kidane - Tezezta Fiqri

Elsa Kidane - 01 - Tezezta Fiqri (7:47)
Elsa Kidane - 02 - Zeban Fiqri (6:48)
Elsa Kidane - 03 - Jobae (7:11)
Elsa Kidane - 04 - Kotsera (6:48)
Elsa Kidane - 05 - Azizeni (4:52)
Elsa Kidane - 06 - Tealiya (5:52)
Elsa Kidane - 07 - Ente Belkuka (7:18)
Elsa Kidane - 08 - Weldo Fikri (5:37)
Elsa Kidane - 09 - Shebab (6:23)

Taniqo - Wala Aikeseb [2004] [eritrea]

       Temesgen "Taniqo" Gebre Selassie is one of the hottest young Eritrean artists to come out of the Asmara music scene, with his unique blend of Eritrean guaila and pop.

Temesgen Taniqo - Tsebah Megesha

Taniqo - 01 - Tsebah Megesha (9:09)

Taniqo - 02 - Wala Aikeseb (6:01)

Taniqo - 03 - Begahdi Ne'elil (6:14)

Taniqo - 04 - Men Ikhi Men (6:09)

Taniqo - 05 - Debena Yele Serbi (6:15)

Taniqo - 06 - Mgudal Abyu Tsegemey (6:02)

Taniqo - 07 - Teta'isu (4:35)

Taniqo - 08 - Alamdni (7:03)

Taniqo - 09 - Felfalit Fiqhri (6:15)

Estifanos Abraham Zemach - Aimeselan [2006] [eritrea]

Estifanos Abraham Zemach - Nistey

Estifanos Abraham Zemach - 01 - Nefelale'do (7:47)

Estifanos Abraham Zemach - 02 - Aimesela (6:31)

Estifanos Abraham Zemach - 03 - Kendeimo (9:01)

Estifanos Abraham Zemach - 04 - Nistey (6:57)

Estifanos Abraham Zemach - 05 - Mot N'bburyu (7:12)

Estifanos Abraham Zemach - 06 - Test'ese (7:47)

Estifanos Abraham Zemach - 07 - Hitetwan'do (5:06)

Estifanos Abraham Zemach - 08 - Wuldo Embaba (7:59)

Estifanos Abraham Zemach - 09 - Kidmeki Yelen (4:34)

Layne Tadesse - Everybody Get Up [EP] [2012] [eritrea+usa]

        Layne was born in Eritrea, located in East Africa just North of Ethiopia near the Red Sea to Neghesty Kiros and Tadesse Iassu, Layne Tadesse is no stranger to war and a desire for freedom. On his debut album a song titled “NEGESHAY” is a tribute to his mother who passed away. In Tigrinya, the African language that is LT’S native tongue, the meaning of his mothers name is Queen, and LT refers to Neghesty as the “Queen of all Queens”.

        With war between Eritrea and Ethiopia beginning shortly after Layne was born, his mother and father fled to Sudan and lived in a refugee camp for three and half years. During that time Layne was able to learn Arabic and the study of Quran religion. Shortly after that Layne, and all his siblings and parents were picked to go to America. Three days prior to flying to America Layne’s older brother Dawit decided to go back to Eritrea and joined the Armed struggle EPLF to fight the Ethiopian communist army. Without his brother Layne along with his siblings and parents landed in Philadelphia and lived there for four years before moving to Southern California. With a diploma from Colton High School and an associate degree from Chaffey Collage. Layne is a positive example turning adversity into opportunity and credits his family for his early musical interests. He grew up around many musicians and most of them family members.

         Throughout High school and collage Layne performed in plays and competed in talent shows and came across many genres of music. First group he was a member of was called Black Fugitives. Black Fugitives were a mixture of Hip-Hop and R&B. However, because he was introduced to Reggae by his family at an early age Layne soon recognized his true calling in music . By taking a piece of his experience with other genres, Layne has created a unique sound that touches the masses. Traditionally it has been a type of music suited for adults only. Many of his loyal fans believed Layne has reinvented Reggae by helping this genre of music cross the barriers that separates our youth and adults.

Layne Tadesse - Ghetto Corner

      Versatile, multitalented, flexible, diverse, are just a few words to describe Layne as an artist and a person. If you have not yet seen one of his live performance then you have missed something great. As a live performer, Layne’s presence is electric, from his trademark Acappella Intros to the last note of the show, he keeps the eyes and ears of the audience glued to the stage. Now with a loyal and always growing fan base, Layne Tadesse plans to spread positive vibes and souls stirring music to the rest of the world.

Layne Tadesse - 01 - Fly Away (3:48)

Layne Tadesse - 02 - Dance (3:49)

Layne Tadesse - 03 - The Best of Me (4:05)

Layne Tadesse - 04 - Dance Floor (4:21)

Layne Tadesse - 05 - Fly Away (DJ Spair Remix) (3:42)

Layne Tadesse - 06 - Dance Floor (DJ Mutt Aka Dr Klaw Remix) (3:08)

Yemane Barya - Zemen [2014] [eritrea]

         Yemane Ghebremichael (commonly known as Yemane Barya), was a well-known Eritrean songwriter, composer and singer. Not confined to musical pursuits, Yemane was also heavily involved in Eritrean politics.          He died of natural causes in 1997. 

     Yemane's songwriting strove to reflect what he perceived to be Eritrean experience during the Eritrean War of Independence. His songs were dotted with stories of love, journey, hope, immigration, and liberation. 

      In 1975 he was jailed for the perceived political interpretation of one of his songs.

Yemane Barya - Zemen

01 - Yemane Barya - Nafkot (4:37)
02 - Yemane Barya - Meriyetey (7:53)
03 - Yemane Barya - Zemen (5:51)
04 - Yemane Barya - Ayresaekukn (8:03)
05 - Yemane Barya - Cira Feres (8:06)
06 - Yemane Barya - Deki Asmara (6:33)
07 - Yemane Barya - Ztsenhe Yu Sdet (6:32)
08 - Yemane Barya - Girma Ziasela (5:24)

Selam Seyoum - In Memory of Tekle Tesfazghi [1995] [eritrea]

       Selam Seyoum Woldemariam, also known as "Selamino", is an African musician who has turned out 250 (mostly locally produced) albums in his more than forty years as a professional musician. He has been called “The Jimi Hendrix of Ethiopia” and is a national legend.

In Memory Of Tekle Tesfazghi - Kemdilayey

Early life

             Selam Seyoum Woldemariam was born in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia, in 1954 to a director-teacher father, Seyoum Woldemariam Kidane, and an assistant teacher-housewife mother, Tsirha Nemariam. 

        The family moved to Asmara, Eritrea, in 1965 and stayed there throughout his childhood (c. 1965–1972). While in Addis Ababa, his father worked in a school run by American missionaries. They brought various records of spiritual songs; Woldemariam and his siblings studied some of the songs and sang them at the Mekane Yesus Church in Addis Ababa. The family owned an acoustic guitar, and while each of his siblings tried to learn, he was the most disciplined in his musical study. 

        During the mid-1960s, Woldemariam formed a church music quintet choir group in Asmara at "Geza Kenisha", which became popular and pulled hundreds of followers to the church where they performed. Later, they included a Swedish drummer but the sound eventually became too noisy for the elderly congregation and they had to discontinue playing. 

            Woldemariam returned to Addis Ababa in 1972 and finished high school. This was at the height of the Ethiopian Civil War and classes in most schools, including Addis Ababa University (AAU) were disrupted. Soon, all higher learning institutions were closed, while students and staff were forced to join the national campaign (Idget Behibret). With the AAU closed, Woldemariam could no longer continue his education.

         Woldemariam later returned and graduated with a BA in History from AAU in 1988. He wrote his senior essay on Ethiopian music: "Origin and Development of Zemenawi Music in Ethiopia, 1896-1974”.

BSB Ibex and ROHA

       He joined The Black Soul Band (BSB) while they were on tour in Addis Ababa in 1973. Alemayehu Eshete and Slim Jones were the main vocalists of the group and together with Tesfaye Lemma of Orchestra Ethiopia, they travelled to various parts of Ethiopia. Towards mid-1974, Woldemariam and some other members of BSB joined the Venus club. 

        After working for a year or so at the Venus, Woldemariam replaced Zimbabwean Ibex Band guitar player Andrew Wilson at the Ras Hotel. During that time, Ibex was dominated by two foreign musicians: Ismail Jingo, vocalist and percussionist and Andrew Wilson, lead guitarist. At the time, most foreigners were leaving Ethiopia due to the revolution and Jingo and Wilson couldn’t stay. As a result, the band re-formed as Ibex (II) with the inclusion of some new members. 

        Mahmoud Ahmed was already in the group. The first recording the group did was his Ere Mela Mela album (LP) around 1975, which was later to become their first ever CD in Ethiopian history, released by a good friend, Francis Falceto on his Ethiopiques series. (Ethiopiques # 7). Ibex disbanded in 1979 as most of its members left for the Sudan, while Mahmoud left for the US. The remaining three members, Giovanni Rico, Fekadu Andemeskel and Selam Woldemariam, formed ROHA Band. The Ibex and ROHA Band dominated the music of the 1970s and 80s. They arranged and recorded well over 250 albums (2500 songs), accompanying various Ethiopian vocalists. From 1980 to 1990, The ROHA Band travelled extensively, throughout Europe, Middle East and the USA as well as to some parts of Africa. Mulatu Astatke joined the ROHA Band at the Paris and Spain summer shows in 1987.

Recent and current work

     During 2000, Woldemariam moved to the US, and started collaboration on the Power of The Trinity project with the Brooklyn-based Tomas Doncker Band. Besides co-writing and playing guitar on some tunes, Woldemariam is also involved as a production consultant. He has performed with the group at various venues. They will be performing together in a long-awaited show at the New York Summer stage in July and August. 

       Woldemariam is in the process of expanding his thesis paper on Ethiopian music and gathering together a book based on his over forty years of experience in music. He is also working on an instrumental album.

01 - Selam Seyoum - Tsibuk Zigebr (5:16)

02 - Selam Seyoum - Mistirawi Debdabe (4:38)

03 - Selam Seyoum - Nbaat Temeghibe (7:16)

04 - Selam Seyoum - Kokobey Kokobki (5:15)

05 - Selam Seyoum - Ningerom Nisdrana (4:27)

06 - Selam Seyoum - Fikrey Telemeni (4:42)

07 - Selam Seyoum - Kemdilayey (6:47)

08 - Selam Seyoum - Kewakhbti (5:26)

09 - Selam Seyoum - Shewit Hidmona (3:51)

Samson Kidane & Band - Gelassenheit [2012] [germany+eritrea]

Samson Kidane - The krar has saved my life

       His instrument has saved his life. Samson Kidane agrees his krar, the national instrument of his native Eritrea.

       His language is Tigrinya. His thoughts are cosmopolitan. His music is universal. And his instrument has saved his life. Samson Kidane (47) sits on his sofa and playing on the krar. "I've been so long in Germany, that I sometimes call myself Kölscher Negroes."

SAMSON KIDANE BAND - Mesiluni (I thought)

       Kidane is one of about 25 000 people from Eritrea, who had to leave their country in the 1980s. He was eleven when he became a soldier and went against the Ethiopian government in the war. "I was a freedom fighter, not a child soldier. Like all boys of my age. The war was all over the country. No one could before fleeing." Child soldiers since Kidane is quite convinced there has never been in Eritrea. "None of us has been forced to kill." An eleven year old who draws freely in the fight? Let the simply are. The discussion can not carry on. 

     Five bullets hit Kidane, the child, in a raid on the camp of his unit to which he has come only because there was no one there who could play the krar. "I was previously in another group. They were all killed in another battle. "

  
Kidane survived the raid. You can do it because he is considered dead. Civilians find him, bring him to his people. Samson, the child is treated and transported to Sudan. Doctors from the Swedish Red Cross operate on him. "I had to be operated on a second time. I could come to Cologne because my aunt lived here. Then am here still. "He had been just happy to finally be able to sleep in peace again," that no one in the street shooting at me and I can finally live like a human again. Everything else, my stranger here was completely unimportant."

       Enough of the past, says Samson Kidane, the musicians. Because his lyrics and poems have less to do with what he had as a child as with the wars that are now out in the name of religion between Christians and Muslims experience during the war. "At home," said Samson, "were never made differences between Christians and Muslims. Until I came to Germany, I did not know enmity between Christians and Muslims."  

     Kidanes music combines his African roots with modern musical styles, reggae, hip-hop and rock. In the songs is about justice, repression, solidarity. "The man is crazy, a skilled Doof," it says in the title song of the CD "Serenity".

       

       A trained Goofy. That sounds resigned. But Kidane is the opposite of that, he once had its own cleaning company, organizes festivals and symposia, mixed in the cultural scene of the city. He calls the network, including a Cologne'd say cliques, and he tried his sons Aminadab (14) and Meron (10) to give a taste of home. "You do not know Eritrea yes. I have to ensure that they can speak in their mother tongue. It's their native language. "

      Kidane says this because it's happened to him in similar reason. He was 14 when he came to Germany - and has the theme of integration is a very personal opinion. "I have problems with foreigners who want to be more German than the Germans." For people from Africa it was much more difficult to gain a foothold in Germany. "I think you still do not take us seriously because we regulate much easy with each other." That had a lot to do with the cohesion. The Africans in Cologne were a secret society and it was "very sad that there are no African center in Cologne." What surprised him the discussions that will be conducted, for example, about the many people of Turkish origin. "I think it's almost insulting. Who have grown up here, speak sometimes even Kölsch. The integrated, maybe they live just different. "

       How Kidane, whose music is well known in the opposition his home. He is a cosmopolitan who is looking for the linking between cultures. 

    Kidane himself sees the sober. He once strangers left on a tour through the immigrant milieu in Cologne in his apartment, which have gone on a world tour in your own town.

01 - Samson Kidane & Band - Mehaza (4:34)

02 - Samson Kidane & Band - Gelassenheit (3:49)

03 - Samson Kidane & Band - Ihre anwesenheit (3:14)

04 - Samson Kidane & Band - Sein (4:07)

05 - Samson Kidane & Band - Gefangnis (5:29)

06 - Samson Kidane & Band - Gefahrliche Liebe (3:23)

07 - Samson Kidane & Band - Ich Dachte (2:42)

08 - Samson Kidane & Band - Gerechtigkeit (6:37)

09 - Samson Kidane & Band - Der Mensch ist Wertvoll (5:52)

10 - Samson Kidane & Band - Musika (3:28)

Aron Abraham - Amani'do Yetselem [2002] [eritrea]

   R   E   U   P   L   O   A   D   

Aron Abraham - Asmara Shikor

       Aron Abraham is an Eritrean Tigrigna singer, who is known for his song "Asmara Shikor" and others.

01. Aron Abraham - Ayresaekuken (5:07)

02. Aron Abraham - Asmara Shikor (6:27)

03. Aron Abraham - Amani'do Yetselem (5:03)

04. Aron Abraham - Aydelen Edmeki (5:20)

05. Aron Abraham - Imuney (5:36)

06. Aron Abraham - Sieliki Ayamenin (3:54)

07. Aron Abraham - Abti Waziemaki (6:32)

08. Aron Abraham - Tshftoy (6:17)

09. Aron Abraham - Yemelales (5:54)

10. Aron Abraham - Jaguar (5:46)

11. Aron Abraham - Liela (5:28)

12. Aron Abraham - Instrumental (0:52)

Sami Berhane - W'lad [2005] [eritrea]

   R   E   U   P   L   O   A   D   

01. Sami Berhane - Kuluye Zemale (6:52)
02. Sami Berhane - Aytsaweronye Ane (6:38)
03. Sami Berhane - Wulad (8:11)
04. Sami Berhane - Flyeti Btebay (7:14)
05. Sami Berhane - Ayney Blen (7:06)
06. Sami Berhane - Btaemiye Zfetweki (7:10)
07. Sami Berhane - Umrel Senin (8:19)
08. Sami Berhane - Abay Seb (8:07)
09. Sami Berhane - Gamey (7:27)
10. Sami Berhane - Ruhus Gama (7:03)