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Title: Classy world music at its best
Review: This is really Bill Lasswell at the top of his game. Of course the stars of the album are Gigi and the wonderful musicians. This is truly beautiful music, intriguingly presented , heavy on traditional acoustic instruments. Gigi's voice is truly superb as others have noted; she manages to instill these songs (a collection of traditional and Gigi-composed tunes) with an amazing interplay of inspirational religiosity, atmospheric exoticism, and certainly, sentient eroticism as well. At the same time, it's manifestly Ethiopian and African. What more could you want? Gigi is an amazing performer (I've seen her live) and this album effectively captures her ethereal and cretive artistry and musicianship. Defiinitely a very appealing album for hard core African music fans; the haunting saxophones and accordion are great as are the rhythms and beats. Meaningful lyrics to boot (summaries provided).
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