Premiere: 'Kabsamai' / Music Yared
Music Yared invoke traditional East African folk melodies through a contemporary lens in “Kabsamai”
The lead single from Music Yared’s forthcoming debut and self-titled EP is fruitful in charisma, charm and meaning. “Kabsamai” engages with alluring folk melodies on the krar and masenko - stringed instruments found in East Africa - while Anbessa’s vocals float above in a vibrant meditation on the challenges innate to love. His voice is powerful and spirited, dancing in effortless ease with the gentle percussion and stringed refrains.
Have an exclusive listen to the track before its release tomorrow below:
Preorder the EP via Music In Exile here
Music Yared is a trio born out of the creative partnership between Anbessa Gebrehiwot and Haftu Reda. Both skilled in traditional instrumentation from Eritrea and Ethiopia respectively, the duo felt complete when they met their third member and multi-instrumentalist Dale Gorfinkel upon arriving at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre in Naarm. Now the trio masterfully explores these avenues of traditional music in a dance-inducing context while their union celebrates the community and creativity of diaspora communities.
“Kabsamai” itself is an exploration of the problems that may arise out of relationships and love. The lyrical honesty considers the universality of human connection and necessity of holding onto love, whether it be from family, culture or romance. Music Yard focuses on the personal meaning behind the track:
“I will do everything for my love, even if it is very hard. We can pass every challenge…
Don’t give up because of challenges in a relationship, don't give up! There are ups and downs, but you can succeed.”
This exclusive snippet of “Kabsamai” comes ahead of the official single release on July 31st before the EP on September 11th.
Stay up to date with Music Yared on Facebook and Instagram
Stay up to date with Music In Exile on musicinexile.com.au, Facebook, Instagram, Bandcamp and Soundcloud
Images by Luke Byrne
Article by Margarita Bassova
Thank you for reading this article. Before you leave the page, we’d like you to take a moment to read this statement. We are asking our readers to take action and stand with the BIPOC community who fight and endure the oppression and injustice of racial inequality.
Here in ‘Australia’, Indigenous people are the most incarcerated population on Earth. Countless lives have been murdered by white police, white government policies and this country’s white history, institutionalised colonialism and ongoing racial oppression. Racial injustice continues today under the phoney, self-congratulatory politics of ‘Reconciliation’ and the notion that colonialism is something that must be denied and forgotten, an uncomfortable artefact of the past.
Feeling guilty is not enough. We must take action, pay the rent, educate ourselves and acknowledge that empathy and sorrow for past actions is insufficient if this does nothing to prevent our current reality from extending into the future.
Please consider making donations to the following organisations (the list is so small and the work to be done is so large, do your research to find more grassroots, Indigenous-lead community organisations):
Indigenous Social Justice Association - fighting to stop Indigenous deaths in custody
Firesticks Alliance - who campaign for Indigenous land management, cultural burning and looking after Country