Hailu Mergia & The Walias Band: Musical Silt

Incredibly The Walias Band’s Tche Belew (1977) was one of only three instrumental Ethiopian albums to be recorded and released on vinyl during the 1970’s. A rich period for Ethiopian music documented throughout Francois Falcetto’s essential Ethiopiques series. It’s not so surprising considering the adventurous Mulatu Astake was the only other artist recording instrumental music in Ethiopia at the time. Astatke features on ‘Musical Silt’ a song I believe could stand up to anything in the Astatke canon (and that’s saying something).