Amha Eshèté.

He's the man who made it possible in Ethiopia. Without Amha Eshèté, there wouldn't have been a private company pressing vinyl records in the 1970s. He dared to defy the regime by making records that wouldn't commissioned or sponsored by the government. 

After leaving Ethiopia and the DERG regime, M. Eshèté pursued a career as an entrepreneur, in both catering and music venues, relying on the Ehiopian community of the United States. Then back to Addis. 

The whole Ethiopian scene which is now massively reissued owe a great deal to M. Eshèté, who recently died. 

He said it all to the Pan-African Music website in a two-part interview (in French). 

Respect. 

Jazz Funéral.

Once again, I have to talk about Capitaine Hadôken, aka Koffi Gnato, aka many other monikers and characters... Usually, he builds beats around random vinyl records, and break our necks with surprising beats. 

On his latest project, the vibe was different. This one is a testimony to his late father, Jean-Pierre Liou, who used to play double-bass in local jazz bands of the Lyon area, France. It was all natural that the Capitaine would use samples from his father's performances to deliver this very unique hommage. 

The whole beat tape is available on Bandcamp. 

Emile Sornin.

The man officially known as Emile Sornin his better known as Forever Pavot, one of the most interesting authors of the current psychedelic pop wave coming from France. He's made music in several bands, from Arun Tazieff to La Récré, and as a solo act, always coping with different genres with great inspiration.

Now the owner of his own studio, Forever Pavot recently presented his love for instruments. And I must admit, it's very entertaining to listen to him. Sadly for non-French speakers, it's... only in French. 

For those who don't know, five yeard ago, in 2016, Forever Pavot issued a 7", "Le Bon Coin Forever", that perfectly express his love for instruments. The concept : visiting people who posted ads to sell their unusual instruments, trying these, recording parts and assembling them in original compositions. It is now pretty difficult to track down. 

Swedish wonder.

Sven Wunder is a a bit of a mystery. A multi-instrumentalist, apparently capable of embracing the subtleness of exotic instruments, with a passion for library music. Maybe seclusive, he mainly works alone. He's responsible of two wonderful albums, one inspired by the Turkish sounds, another one diving into the atmosphere of Japan. 

His label, Piano Piano Records, has just announced the third opus of the guy, titled "Natura Morta", with a first track called "En plein air". 

Besides the announcement, Sven Wunder issued a mix of favorites from the library music genre. It includes pretty much a best-of of the genre (just take a look at the following list : Janko Nilovic, Stefano Torrossi, Ennio Morricone, Arawak, Piero Umiliani, Jay Richford, François de Roubaix, Rahul Dev Burman... what a dream team), hosted on the Aquarium Drunkard website. Good news, it's a mp3 file that you can download, instead of a streaming link (which I kinda hate for some reason...). 

The goodies don't stop here. Sven Wunder had already made mixes for the release his "Wabi Sabi" album, which are available on the same website.  

Do yourself these favors.