On Bahir, Los Angeles multi-instrumentalit Dexter Story melds his world into the one he fell in love with so strongly while travelling through the Horn o Africa. One way in which he's done so is by incorporating musicians from both sides of this coin. LA luminaries are featured throughout, as are African contemporaries he encountered throughout his travels.
Sudan Archives gives a show-stealing vocal performance on "Gold", while the Ethiopian producer Endeguena Mulu adds impenetrable and psychedelic texture to the album's title track.
So Bahir finds the polymath musician not stuck between two worlds, but as a member of both. We get Ethiopian jazz tonalities, Tuareg grooves, ekista dance rhythms, Afro-funk, Somalian soul and forays into more contemporary jazz rhythms, too. Angelenos like Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and Josef Leimberg give the record its backbone, while African artists like the Ethiopian singer Hamelmal Abate give Bahir its glimmer and shine.
