The otherworldly compositions of an Ethiopian nun

Cannot recommend this enough. I was intrigued at first while watching the movie "Broken Flowers" where this music was subliminal yet haunting (and perhaps the most memorable thing out of that movie!). "Yegelle Tezeta" (Mulatu Astatke from Éthiopiques, Vol. 4: Ethio Jazz & Musique Instrumentale - the entire album is awesome).

Also, "If you like this, then you might also like" Ali Farka Touré / Toumani Diabaté (From a different African country). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toumani_Diabat%C3%A9

I discovered this song [1] from Ethiopiques Vol. 10 some time ago when I was in a rough spot and it helped me, so I also highly recommend the Ethiopiques collection.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1A5NTzSN08

> Listening to Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou on Spotify, sounds to me like an old honky tonk solo piano recording from before world war 2. Lots of pentatonic melodies.

I think that's partly what's so good about it. It's harmonically simple and a little noodly, but has a lot of atmosphere and feeling in it.

What hits me about it is how similar the sense of rhythm is to that of liturgical chant. Things happen at the "right" time, it's not arbitrary, but it's not a priori precise either. Phrases can be as long as they "need to" be and other parts of the music change to accommodate them. It's not fixed to any sort of rhythmical grid and would be extremely difficult to annotate accurately & usefully, but it still has an order in time. Hard to describe but I recognize the feel of it from chant.

On the surface it sounds like jazz but jazz has a very different feel to it rhythmically. Phrases expand and contract but through the mechanism of swing. The speed and swing might change but you can always feel the underlying pulse.

I also read it that way, but thought the article would be about her character, not musical compositions. Regardless, Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou was a remarkable person with tragic circumstances in life.

it does say that?

Yup, sounds like a Rob Zombie song.

very well said. without saying much at all :)