Addis Through The Looking Glass

When their first set, A Town Called Addis was released in 2008 it was hailed as one of the most inventive fusion albums of the year, with its blend of contemporary and traditional Ethiopian styles, jazz and dub reggae. Addis Through the Looking Glass is a more lengthy, even more varied and sophisticated album that moves the experiment on – with the Ethiopian contingent playing a greater role in the proceedings. It’s still an experimental fusion set, not a straightforward recording of Ethiopian songs, but the successes of the years between recordings led to growing trust and confidence within the band.

This time they were saying to me ‘we’d like to show you our take on it, rather than you interpreting us’, explains Dubulah. It was a good exchange. They would come up with the subject matter and ideas for the next phase of the group. And I’d transport some of their ideas into another world.