POST 500

June 21, 2025, 4:49 am
Filed under: Eritrea

Those of you who have followed this blog know of my affinity for the music of Eritrea. My first single from that country was by Ato Atowebrhan Seghid. I could tell there was someting different about it that distinguished it from the music of Ethiopia. But when I received my second record from that country – the Mulugeta Tlahun & Negash Tekie single on Emporio Musicale – I was hooked. That record blew my mind. Still my favorite record in my collection. So much so that I play it every time I DJ.

For my 500the post, I wanted to spotlight the labels that were specifically from Eritrea. So, there are no tracks from the singles released by Amha, Kaifa or Phillips. Many of those songs have been complied on Buda Musique‘s Éthiopiques series – specially “Volume 05 – Tigrigna Music“. I decided focus on the smaller labels that only released one to ten singles: Asteh, Axum, Bereket, Cinelux, Dejene, Emporio Musicale, Fikre/Fikkre, Harambee Asmara, Kothari, Tesfa, Yared and Yetba – plus the Ghirmay Kidane with Orchestra I single on Esso’s record imprint.

There are a few tracks that are deliberately absent. Axum A 004 was by Muluken Melesse who was Ethiopian. Same for Dejene DJ-0010 – which was recorded by Alèmayèhu Eshèté.

The sound quality of these audio files vary quite wildly. Some I’ve transferred from vinyl, but most are files that were either given to me or I have found – some from eBay auction listings, YouTube grabs, and where ever else I could find these songs. I have done my best to try to clean these up as much as possible. If you have any of the missing tracks, better audio transfers, better cover scans, or any information on these records or ones I may have missed – please contact me.

For more information on Eritrean music, be sure to check out Eritrean Anthology. Many of the images used for this post were from Funk Fidelity’s Modern Ethiopian Music Discographies webpage.

ERITREAN SINGLES DATABASE