FENDIKA & K-SANCHIS - GOJO / ጎጆ

121234.records is happy to present this energetic new collaboration. Started by Dutch/Swiss baritone saxophonist Jeroen Visser and Ethiopian dancer and cultural ambassador Melaku Belay the project features nine musicians and dancers.

Their first album GOJO, the amharic word for cottage and used metaphorically for the common start of something new, pays tribute to the golden age of the Ethio-Jazz with nine pieces in many refreshing ways.

Where those recordings were played mainly with western instruments, this album puts the Ethiopian lyre the kirar, the one-string violin the masinqo, and the kebero as drums at a fundamental position in the music.

Changes in rhythm, some experimental improvisations and wild outbursts, are completing the overall hypnotic and energetic mood, giving the mesmerizing voice of Nardos Tesfaw a charged play eld. The saxophones perfect the soulful and funky arrangements. They harmonize as well as complement the traditional Ethiopian musical scales, expanding its musical dimensions.

GOJO shows elaborated and powerful arrangements in which a fascinating melodic tone comes to life. Its energy live on stage is even augmented by the dancers/vocalists Melaku Belay and Emebet Woldetsdik.