Photo: Karston Tannis

Following the lead single ‘Netsanet’, Mulatu Astatke has shared a new single, ‘Kulun’, ahead of his upcoming album Mulatu Plays Mulatu. A reworking of a traditional Ethiopian wedding song, the track is built around the anchi-hoye scale, central to the country’s musical identity. Recorded between London and Addis Ababa with his long-time UK band, ‘Kulun’ revisits the sounds that helped redefine Ethiopian music in the late ’60s and early ’70s. The ensemble, shaped through years of live performance and sessions at Addis’s Jazz Village, brings fresh energy and depth to the arrangement.

Mulatu Plays Mulatu arrives on September 26 through Strut. Now listen to ‘Kulun’.