Review

Mulatu Astatke & The Heliocentrics

Inspiration Information Vol.3

Strut • 2009

As part of their »Inspiration/Information« series, the label Strut has already confined Amp Fiddler to the recording studio with Sly & Robbie in the past, as well as Horace Andy and Ashley Beedle. Now they have nabbed Mulatu Astatke and The Heliocentrics and teamed them up for a studio session. That in itself is quite something. Mulatu Astatke is considered the father of ethno-jazz and since the late 1960s has created his very own style of sound combining jazz, Latin American music and traditional Ethiopian music. He probably became known to a wider audience through Jim Jarmusch’s film »Broken Flowers«, on which he contributed several pieces. Heliocentrics, whose drums Madlib and in particular his Yesterday’s New Quintet project have happily sampled, released a potent debut on Stones Throw in 2007. The fusion of these different musicians and their styles works across the board and is both contemporary and timeless in the same measure. The traditional Ethiopian instruments were recorded live and lend the album a very special groove.