(Muzikawi, Addis Ababa, Washington, Stockholm)

Ibex Band, led by guitarist Selam »Selamino« Seyoum Woldemarian and bassist Giovanni Rico, was one of Ethiopia’s most influential bands. In the 1970s and 1980s, they worked on more than 200 albums and recorded around 2,500 songs. Much of this got lost. They were the musical backbone for Mulatu Astatke and Mahmoud Ahmed, for Aster Aweke, Girma Beyene, and Tilahun Gessesse. They established the 6/8 chickchicka rhythm and those heavy, incredibly groovy bass loops. Ibex Band reinvented traditional Ethiopian melodies as dance music. For decades, other musicians in the country copied their style or even their instruments, picking up the Fender bass because Giovanni Rico played it and the Gibson guitar of Selamino. This is where the sound of Ethiopian jazz originated.

Stockholm- and Addis-based label Muzikawi reissued Ibex's long-lost album, going by the appropriate name "Stereo Instrumental Music" in the summer of 2025. The fantastic international feedback to this masterpiece of laid-back Ethiopian vibes encouraged the dynamic duo of Selamino and Giovanni to reunite, ready to storm the stages again, together with a handpicked crew of younger musicians from the US, Sweden, and Ethiopia.