Gigi Returns with Long-Awaited Second Album Gold & Wax

Ethiopian songstress receives a cross-cultural boost

“Ethiopia’s gift to the world” - The Miami Herald

”Gigi is a joyous adventure in modern African pop.” - CMJ

”Gigi stands as the most important new African singer on the scene today” - Banning Eyre, Afropop Worldwide

”Gigi… possesses the kind of voice that can force the pleasure centers of the brain to kick out endorphins with only a handful of notes.” - San Francisco Bay Guardian

After five years, Ethiopian singer Gigi returns with her much anticipated CD, Gold & Wax, an organic blend of African songs mixed with elements of Jamaica, India and America.

Featuring a stellar roster, bassist Bill Laswell has assembled an eclectic array of musical talent for Gold & Wax. India’s great sarangi player/vocalist Ustad Sultan Khan, tabla player/drummer Karsh Kale, funk keyboard maestro Bernie Worrell, African multi-instrumentalists Abesgasu Shiota, Moges Habte, Aiyb Dieng and Assaye Zegeye; digital futurists MIDIval PunditZ and Skizz Fernando, and avant-guitarist Buckethead all contribute to this incredible CD.

From the opening strains of “Semena-Wrock,” a jazz-inspired, kit drum-led, up-tempo number, Gigi returns to old form. Surrounded by punchy saxophones and Laswell’s signature low-end, Gigi’s golden voice remains the driving force of the next 66 minutes. Backed by a tasteful landscape of drum ‘n bass and resonant guitar echoes, the second track, “Anten” proves much more aligned with her work with Tabla Beat Science. The light textures of “Jerusalem,” organ-led dynamics of “Salam,” and the only English language song here, “Utopia,” call for a spaciousness allowing the listener to invest time and emotion.

With the release of the long awaited Gold & Wax, Gigi is ensuring her place as an ambassador of ancient sound with modern sensibilities.

Semena-Worck by Gigi
From the album Gold n Wax
Translation by: Elsa Woubiye Shipley

The poem, the poet read the poem,
He baked the gold over the wax.*

The poem, the poet read the poem,
He baked the gold over the wax.

He is a very clever man
How did he ferment this to bake the gold and wax into my heart? He took my heart with the gold and wax He won me with his knowledge My man, you can find him with a poem.

The poem, the poet read the poem,
He baked the gold over the wax.

The poem, the poet read the poem,
He baked the gold over the wax.

Where you find beauty, beauty will live
Where there is light, light will live
Where you find kindness, kindness will live
If they want it to live, they will find it living
If a person has no knowledge, he will learn how to be a person

The poem, the poet read the poem,
He baked the gold over the wax.

The poem, the poet read the poem,
He baked the gold over the wax.

The poem, the poet read the poem,
He baked the gold over the wax.

The poem, the poet read the poem,
He baked the gold over the wax.

A kind mans words bring peace
He went the kind way to tell his poem
He is always telling his poem
When you go up you go down
When you go down you go up
When you go up you go down
When I went down the hill I reached an oasis.

• ’baked the gold over the wax’ is an Amharic saying meaning there is a hidden (double) meaning to what you are saying- the wax is a hidden secret inside the ball of gold