Black Flower

Black Flower is a Belgian quintet led by multi-instrumentalist and composer Nathan Daems. Their sound offers a unique interpretation of the Ethiopian jazz developed by Mulatu Astatke, Mahmoud Ahmed, and Hailu Mergia, wed to post-bop jazz, funk, Afrobeat, dub, and Balkan and East Asian sounds. They made their debut with 2014's Abyssinia Afterlife, weaving brittle yet elephantine beats into tight, arpeggiated grooves shot through with blasts of baritone sax and wah-wah-driven organ. While 2017's Artifacts centered on Ethiopian folk melodies joined to skittering beats and soulful...