Description

Londonbased trio Hejira announce their second LP Thread of Gold, released on the 22nd of February 2019 through their own Lima Limo Records.nbspBorne from an astonishing and acutely personal sequence of events, Thread of Gold tells the story of vocalist, bass guitarist and cosongwriter Rahel DebebeDessalegnersquos changing relationship with her homeland of Ethiopia after the death of her father. She took the band with her on a pilgrimage to Addis Ababa, looking to reaffirm her own ancestral roots and cultural identity, and subsequently on a deeper exploration into the unique, ancient and farflung lands, peoples and musicrsquos of Ethiopia. On this journey, the band members worked through loss and bereavement, through discovery and new experiences, through a moveable song writing that took place across many years and many locations. The displacement, write the band, gave deeper meaning to their own identities.nbspThe results as documented on Thread of Gold weave together the many ribbons of Hejirarsquos musical outlook. Years of performing together in jazz and bigband ensembles, and alongside such profiles as Amy Winehouse, Nitin Sawhney, Floating Points and Eric Lau has informed an instinctual and mutually inspiring compositional relationship within the band. Their intelligent, soulful, leftfieldaligned take on pop music underpins their love of the otherworldly, the mesmerising, and the unpredictable. Their time in Ethiopia eventually became the binding force around several yearsrsquo worth of song writing and selfrecording. ldquoEthiopia became a backbone and a point of reference,rdquo multiinstrumentalist and producer Sam Beste offers. ldquoThe experience helped to galvanise everything we had written into a cohesive work.rdquonbspPartly dedicated to the memory of Rahelrsquos uncle Gashe Selelshie ldquothe type of person you learn so much from just by being in his companyrdquo, Thread of Gold sparkles with articulate and subtle instrumentation, ear worming choruses, orchestral arrangement, emotive confession, East African field recordings and close vocal harmonies, all illuminating a profoundly moving and intimate personal expression.nbspHejira formed in 2010 after Beste, DebebeDessalegne and fellow multiinstrumentalist Alex Reeve set up their home studio in South East London. The lineup expands to include additional musicians both in the studio and onstage. These are never hired hands, but musical lsquocousinsrsquo to the lsquosiblingsrsquo of the core trio.nbspIn 2016, following the release of their acclaimed 2013 debut LP Prayer Before Birth on Matthew Herbertrsquos Accidental Records, and EPs on Accidental and Floating Pointsrsquo Eglo Records, the band set up their own Lima Limo Records. The label named after a winding mountain path in northern Ethiopia has become a home not only for their own releases, but also for likeminded creative souls releasing music just as strange and wonderful as Hejirarsquos. Hejira LP is available for home delivery from Vinyl Records London, only £17