EMAHOY TSEGE MARIAM GEBRU Vinyl & CDs

Review: Souvenirs is the first vocal album from Ethiopian nun, composer and pianist Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru. It was recorded between 1977 and 1985 in a lo-fi setup in her family home in Addis Ababa shortly before she was exiled to Jerusalem. Playing the piano and singing through a boom box, Gebru captured the solemn mood of the time as she faced the prospect of leaving her homeland to escape the upheaval brought about the 1974 revolution in Ethiopia. Her playing fuses Western classical with Ethiopian traditional and Orthodox music, while her Amharic lyrics touch on the tumultuous situation she found herself in, in profoundly poetic ways. The accompanying 16-page booklet offers translations of these words, so the message can land for listeners beyond the powerful impact of the recordings themselves.

Review: The first vocal album by beloved Ethiopian nun, composer, and pianist Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru, Souvenirs is a profound and deeply moving home collection of cassette recordings made amidst political upheaval and turmoil. These are songs of wisdom, loss, mourning, and exile, sung directly into a boombox and accompanied by Emahoy's unmistakable piano. Though written and recorded while still living at her family's home in Addis Ababa, Emahoy sings of the heartache of leaving her beloved Ethiopia, a reflection on the 1974 revolution and ensuing Red Terror in her homeland, and a presentiment of her future exile in Jerusalem. Rich with the sound of birds outside the window, the creak of the piano bench, the thump of Emahoy's finger on the record button, they create a sense of place, of being near the artist while she records. Emahoy's lyrics, sung in Amharic, are poetic and heavy with the weight of exile; she dreamt of releasing this music to a larger audience before her passing in March of 2023, so in her honour, Mississippi present this album in collaboration with her family now, in what would have been her 100th year.

Review: We were first alerted to the wonderful musical universe of Emahoy Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou back in August when her self-titled album was reissued on this label. We learned that Emahoy was an Ethiopian nun known for her piano playing and musical compositions as well as for singing for Haile Selassie. She then became something of a recluse though spent time perfecting her blues. Her music sales have been used to fund orphaned children in Ethiopia. Jerusalem is the first archival release of her music since 2006 when she was introduced to the world.

Review: Emahoy Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou was an Ethiopian nun known for her piano playing and musical compositions. She sang for Haile Selassie though later retreated from the world and lived barefoot n a monastery where she worked on perfecting her blues sound. She became known as the honky tonk nun and levied well into her 90s. This reissue of her self titled album shows off her unique sound which started with her first violin recital at the age of ten and went on to include piano albums being released with all profits going to benefit orphaned children in Ethiopia. What a woman.

Review: Reissued in the aftermath of her passing away in 2023, Souvenirs is probably the best-known album by Ethiopian legend Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru, whose morphing from nun to composer, pianist and vocalist tracks an exquisitely bleak but powerful history. The first album to feature her own voice, the album was written and recorded at her family home in Addis Ababa, and deals in personal themes of loss, homesickness and transience, reflecting on Emahoy's experiences of the turmoil of the 1976 Red Terror in Ethiopia, in which the provisional Derg military dictatorship violently suppressed the rise of other competing revolutionary militia groups, and in so doing caused mass upheavals and migrations. With lyrics sung in Amharic and overlaid against uniquely mournful DIY instrumentations, Mississippi's CD reissue reminds us of its heart-warmer status, betraying Emahoy's deep familial fidelity and integrity.