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, combined with post-bop jazz, funk, Afrobeat, dub, and Balkan and East Asian sounds. They made their debut with 2014's Abyssinia Afterlife, which wove 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 wed to skittering beats and soulful improvisation, 2019's Future Flora offered a more Western touch with Romanian influences stitched into the mix. 2022's Magma shifted gears to treat newcomer Karel Cuelenaere's antique Farfisa organ with a large palette of electronic textures with massive dub effects added to the rest of the arrangements.