Souvenirs

by Tsege Mariam Gebru

Overview

Ethiopian pianist and composer Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou's music has such a unique emotional quality that it seems to inhabit a universe apart from all others. Guèbrou lived a life of equal parts intensity and calm before her death in 2023, suffering repression and imprisonment connected to various wars from early in life and after becoming a nun and committing herself to quiet religious devotion. This duality shows up in the yearning melancholy of her music, with songs that reflect the sorrows of a troubled, warring society as much as they celebrate the solitary beauty of the individual spirit. While her solo piano recordings evoke these feelings wordlessly, the 2024 posthumous release Souvenirs is the first album from Guèbrou to include a component of sung vocals on every track. The eight selections that make up the album were recorded to cassette at her family home between 1977 and 1985. There are artifacts of this recording style that add to the album's cozy charm. With the entire sonic picture being captured live and with minimal miking, the vocals often feel slightly buried in the ambience of the room, especially on the bright and reassuring ¿Tenkou! Why Feel Sorry?¿ or intertwined with the circular piano melodies of ¿Where Is the Highway of Thought?¿ There are moments when external sounds drift into the recordings, reminding us that Guèbrou's heavenly meditations were indeed happening right here on Earth. Through the tape hiss and occasional chirp of birds outside her window, Souvenirs delivers the same kind of austere, floating loveliness of so many of Guèbrou's other albums. Her piano figures wander and bend, comfortably wriggling themselves in and out of various scales and applications. ¿Clouds Moving on the Sky¿ combines the unlikely elements of dirge-like traditional folk, the lingering emotional atmospheres of Debussy, and a playing style not too far from the boozy saloon stumbling of ragtime piano. She returns to themes of country and home throughout the album on songs like ¿Ethiopia My Motherland¿ and ¿Don't Forget Your Country.¿ Though it's only eight songs long, Souvenirs is as valuable a chapter in Guèbrou's discography as any, with the focus on singing offering another angle on her inimitable and intensely moving artistry. ~ Fred Thomas

Product Details

Release Date:	04/12/2024
Label:	MISSISSIPPI RECORDS
UPC:	0617308067170

Tracks

1. Clouds Moving on the Sky
2. Ready to Leave
3. Is it Sunny or Cloudy in the Land You Live?
4. Tenkou! Why Feel Sorry?
5. Ethiopia My Motherland
6. Where is the Highway of Thought?
7. Don't Forget Your Country
8. Like the Sun Shines on Meadows

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Emahoy Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou   Primary Artist