(headline image: Meklit Hadero – photo by Alexa Treviño)
Ethiopian artist Meklit has released an original video for “Tizita,” featuring Brandee Younger on harp and directed by Sophiyya Nayar.
“Tizita” is a traditional Ethiopian song form associated with longing and nostalgia. The film follows two flower-headed figures, Ahon Gooptu and Mihika Miranda, cloaked in living foliage as a meditation on time. “The flower heads are like seeing through a memory itself,” Meklit notes, “where emotion and sensation are in charge, and we let go of the logic of everyday life.”
Meklit developed her rendition over nearly a decade and credits Younger for amplifying the work’s atmosphere: “Thanks to the brilliant Brandee Younger for bringing the glittering dreaminess of the harp to this much-loved tune.”
“Tizita” appears on A Piece Of Infinity, Meklit’s first album for Smithsonian Folkways, set for release on September 26.
Author: World Music Central News Room
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