Artists: The Embassadors feat. Michel Ongaru
Title: Healing The Music
Cat.No.: non23 MDM25732
Format: CD
Release Date: 14th March 2008

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Press responses:

Chisholm hails from an open landscape, and creates something that can sometimes sound like jazz, but it´s utterly free of American jazzbo specialization and dogma. And, like any good pop record, Healing the Music has its human center, a voice with passion and despair that scales the language barrier. In Kenyan singer Michel Ongaru, Chisholm has found his Cee-Lo. Ongaru translates Chisholm´s lyrics into Swahili (a notoriously treacherous conversion), so even those who speak that evocative, vowel-intensive language may have to draw their own constellations. But the skill and soul shine right across the equator. There´s a certain kind of triumphant anguish that works more through sound than language, and Swahili has a particularly gripping vocab for it.For a rather far-fetched point of comparison, certain passages of Healing the Music recall Angelo Badalamenti´s David Lynch soundtracks. For what it´s worth. (Emerson Dameron, Dusted)

The Embassadors created an earthbound spacewalk with Healing the Music. Led by the emotional vocals of Michel Ongaru, who transcribed Embassadors architect Hayden Chisholm´s English lyrics into sung Swahili, the group´s tracks, like the measured, slow-burning Wimbo Wa Wana and laid-back Chema Chajiuza, are addictive sonic exercises. The head-bobbing bass of Tenda Wema Dub would probably fill Angelo Badalamenti with jealousy, while the Caribbean bounce of Jipe Moyo just begs for some Dennis Alcapone toasting. It´s as fascinating as it is chilled. (XLR8R)

Singing in Swahili, Ongaru´s full, resonant voice rings over every track, tracing vaguely Eastern-sounding modal paths through warm-blooded cuts that draw upon jazz, blues, dub and latin forms. At times recalling the eerie beauty of the popular Ethiopiques series, healing The Music offers a rare treat: a new comfort zone created by a group of talented players working outside their usual boundaries. (P.Sherburne, Earplug)

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