Inspiration Information 3 - Mulatu Astatke / The Heliocentrics

The third in Strut’s Inspiration Information studio collaboration series brings together an intriguing pairing between one of Africa’s great bandleaders, Mulatu Astatke, with the next level musicianship of The Heliocentrics collective from the mighty roster of Now Again / Stones Throw Records.

Known primarily through the successful ‘Ethiopiques’ album series and the film soundtrack to Jim Jarmusch’s ‘Broken Flowers’, Mulatu Astatke is one of Ethiopia’s foremost musical ambassadors. Informed by early spells living and studying in the UK and the USA, his self-styled ‘Ethio-jazz’ flourished during the “Swinging Addis” era of the late ‘60s as he successfully fused Western jazz and funk with traditional Ethiopian folk melodies, five tone scale arrangements and elements from music of the ancient Coptic church.

The Heliocentrics have become known as one of the UK’s foremost free-thinking collectives of musicians, inspired by a wide palette covering Sun Ra, James Brown, David Axelrod and all manner of psych, Afro and Eastern sounds. Now a fixture within the Now Again / Stones Throw roster, they forged their own genre-breaking directions in the astral analogue groove on their 2007 debut album, ‘Out There’.

The recording liaison took place thanks to some inspired programming by Karen P for her ‘Broad Casting’ session at Cargo in London on 17th April 2008. Securing Mulatu for his first UK live date in over 15 years, she called on The Helios to back the maestro and, with only a day of rehearsal, they tore the place up with a series of original Mulatu classics and chalked up one of the most memorable gigs of the year. The show cemented Mulatu’s long-standing involvement with Red Bull Music Academy and was recorded for RBMA Radio (it is still available to listen on demand at www.rbma.org). A Gilles Peterson Maida Vale session followed for BBC Radio One.

The new recording is a mouth-watering prospect. Driven by groove and melody ideas exchanged upfront of the sessions, the album was laid down at Heliocentrics analogue HQ in East London during September 2008 during a series of frenetic writing and recording periods. Mulatu brought across samples, rhythms and voices recorded with ethnic groups in Addis, Ethiopian musicians based in London contributed traditional sounds using instruments like the karrar (a six-stringed, five tone instrument) and washent (made from bamboo). Joel Yennior from Boston’s Either Orchestra scored and arranged the horn lines on the fly, and the Heliocentrics band members grafted long into each night to gel the sounds and add the necessary production touches. The result is a true fusion of styles, at times reminiscent of Mulatu’s earlier recordings, at others bringing his haunting vibes lines into more experimental territory as the Helios whip up their own fresh Ethio-hybrid.

“The Heliocentrics have contributed half of the tracks and I have contributed the other half,” explains Mulatu. “There’s a new composition, ‘Cha Cha’, and ‘Dewel’, which is heavily influenced by an Ethiopian Coptic Church composer called Yard. The band took it and added what they feel. It’s a nice experiment.”

The album will be released as a CD digipak, LP and digital across all platforms and will be supported by a full touring schedule during Spring and Summer 2009.