Release Datum: Feb 22, 2019
London-based trio Hejira
Borne from an astonishing and acutely personal sequence of events, Thread of Gold tells the story of vocalist, bass guitarist and co-songwriter Rahel Debebe-Dessalegne’s 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 far-flung lands, peoples and
The results - as documented on Thread of Gold - weave together the many ribbons of Hejira’s musical outlook. Years of performing together in jazz and big-band 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, leftfield-aligned 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 years’ worth of
Partly dedicated to the memory of Rahel’s uncle Gashe Selelshie (“the type of person you learn so much from just by being in his company”), Thread of Gold sparkles with articulate and subtle instrumentation,
Hejira formed in 2010 after Beste, Debebe-Dessalegne and fellow multi-instrumentalist Alex Reeve set up their home studio in South East London. The line-up expands to include additional musicians both in the studio and onstage. These are never hired hands, but musical ‘cousins’ to the ‘siblings’ of the core trio.
In 2016, following the release of their acclaimed 2013 debut LP Prayer Before Birth on Matthew Herbert’s Accidental Records, and EPs on Accidental and Floating Points’ 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
Save it for Another (Digital) | 4:30 | $2 |
Joyful Mind | 4:50 | $2 |
Ribs | 5:37 | $2 |
Lima Limo | 4:25 | $2 |
Empire | 4:36 | $2 |
A Taxi Man | 3:20 | $2 |
Seven | 3:31 | $2 |
You | 3:23 | $2 |
Thread of Gold | 5:32 | $2 |