Today's Song of the Day, as chosen by Gabriel Teodros, host of Early on KEXP, is "Sera" by dragonchild, from the 2023 album dragonchild on FPE Records.
dragonchild is the new project from saxophonist DA Mekonnen, who previously led the Boston-based 11-piece Ethiopian music collective Debo Band. As a solo artist, he says he plans to take his exploration of Ethiopian music and explode it "into vivid, three-dimensional space."
On today's Song of the Day, he collaborates with Addis Ababa-based electronic artist Ethiopian Records (real name: Endeguena Mulu); he also samples the track "Seqota" by Yezinna Negash, a fellow Addis Ababa-based vocalist.
As he sums up in a press statement, “The record feels and breathes to me like the Ethiopian music I’ve been trying to figure out my whole life.”
