From Marching Band to Marching Band (or the very extraordinary relationship between the UK peace movement and the Ethiopian Army)

Audio essay which tells the story of my time working with fighters from the cultural troupes of the Tigrayan Peoples Liberation Front or TPLF in the liberated areas of Tigray, Northern Ethiopia in 1987. These solders - all musicians, and performers - were fighting the Ethiopian government, the Derg, the most heavily armed regime in Africa at that time, and, as part of their battle for hearts and minds wanted to learn to notate traditional Tigrayan music, arrange it for modern electronic instruments and learn to record and amplify it more effectively.

This was originally developed for a concert performance related to the symposium 'Land Music: sound practices in the age of ecological crisis' at City University in September 2019

• https://soundcloud.com/playingwithwords/...