Music in Exile is proud to present the self titled debut EP from Music Yared along with the third single, Ruhus Gama. In keeping with themes of love and relationships that are heard throughout the EP, Ruhus Gama was written for a specific Australian-Ethiopian wedding in 2017 to celebrate the love of the bride and the groom.

Recorded at home in Melbourne, the unique recordings from Music Yared’s EP fall somewhere between long-form folk storytelling and contemporary radio pop, blurring boundaries between past and present environments. Singing about love, distance, separation and culture, these songs share messages that are universal and that everyone can connect to on a human level.

Anbessa Gebrehiwot and Haftu Reda are musicians from Eritrea and Ethiopia who are skilled in traditional knowledge of the krar and the masenko, stringed instruments found in East Africa. Leading vastly different lives in their homeland, the pair are now based in Melbourne, Australia, where they collaborate with producer and multi-instrumentalist Dale Gorfinkel. Ranging from modern takes on folk compositions to new, original works, the five pieces collected on their debut EP build on age-old traditions and explore these in a contemporary context. The result is a set of recordings that are steeped in Eritrean and Ethiopian tradition and yet marvellously unique, a by-product of the individuals’ knack for innovation and the circumstances surrounding their creation.