Introduction
Before the 1980s, there was hardly any existing full-fledged recording studios in Eritrea. Tewelde Redda, a famous Eritrean guitarist of the 1960s to mid-70s, recorded many of Asmara Theatre Association’s (Ma.Te.A.) music during live performances. Music arrangers like Osman Abdelrahim and Alamin Abdeletif whose modern music arrangements borrowed from western influences also played a role in shaping the music of the time.
In the 1980s when Ethiopian music, mainly Amharic was dominant, the few active Tigrigna singers (Yohannes Estifanos, Tareke Tesfahiwet, Mulugeta Beyene and Berhane Haile) in Asmara recorded their music at the Police Orchestra facilities. In these recordings, Isaac Banjaw, a music composer and arranger, played a significant role in producing Tigrigna music of the 1980s. However, Tsegay Beraki, one of the famous musicians of the time, recorded his 1990 album Afom Mear’yu in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Also during this time, musicians in the armed struggle recorded their music in the underground studio of the Radio of the Broad Masses of the EPLF. The station was also used to play revolutionary music aired to the Eritrean audience who were under Ethiopian controlled areas of Eritrea. Music remained part of the struggle campaign and raised popular support encouraging the youth to be part of the struggle.
Tekle Kiflemariam’s (popularly known as Wedi Tukul) Yikealo, which came after the 1988 military victory that liberated Afabet town from Ethiopian army, and Ahmed Mohammed’s (aka Wedi Shiek) Hayet Enta are just two of the albums produced at the underground studio.
Exiled Eritrean musicians produced their works in Sudan and Saudi Arabia. For instance, Yemane Ghebremichael’s (Barya) Zemen album was produced in Saudi Arabia by the famous Eritrean music composer Abdallah Abubaker who had played with Ma.Te.A. (Asmara Theatre Association) and Rocket Band in the 1970s. Sami Berhane also recorded his album Nabra Aykonen in Saudi. Idris Mohammed Ali and Bereket Mengsteab on the other hand recorded their music in the Sudan.
During this period most music composers were self-taught and had revolutionized traditional beats blending them with contemporary popular genres. Tewelde Redda’s unique guitar skills invoked bluesy influences in his music. A big portion of what was produced during those years relegated the traditional Eritrean guayla beat to the backseat. Yemane Barya’s Zemen album, for instance, consistently employed rhythmic grooves of bass line and drum foreground in most of the tracks. This it appears, was the result of intensive improvisations and training which musicians like Abdallah Abubakar perfected with full knowledge of funk music.
The content of most of the music produced at the time, as much as they touched upon romantic issues, they raised Eritrean national consciousness. While some symbolised Eritrea as a female lover they had lost, others represented Eritrea as a home they missed in order to escape censorship of the time.
Computerized recordings
In the early 1990s, the Eritrean band Adulis used a four-channel mobile analogue mixer to record its music such as Adey Adeya. For artists who could not work with the analogue equipment, the only option was to travel outside the country to
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