DEXTER STORY / デクスター・ストーリー / BAHIR / レコード

待望! 東アフリカの音楽に多大な影響を受ける在LAのプロデューサーでカマシ・ワシントンやカルロス・ニーニョ、マドリブに至るまでジャンルを超えたコラボレーションにより、現行アフロポップの最重要人物となりつつあるデクスター・ストーリーの新作! 今回も前作同様にカルロス・ニーニョが共同プロデュース! STONES THROW からのリリースでもおなじみのスーダン・アーカイブスをゲストで迎える一方、エチオピアの歌手やプロデューサーを多数起用し、これまでになかったサイケデリックとしか言いようのない独特の質感を獲得するなど前作『WONDEM』、そしてカマシ・ワシントンとのコラボ・シングル『WEJENE AOLA』の世界をさらに拡大した内容に。今回も話題になること必至の一枚です!

Dexter Story BAHIR was recorded at:
Comp-NY Studio (Engineer / Owner: Be Hussey)
Knobworld Studios (Engineer: Dexter Story, Owner: Jim Lang)
Red Gate Recorders (Engineer: Chris Harbach, Owner: Sam Darring and Chris Harbach)
Stones Throw Studios (Engineer / Owner: Jake Viator)
Studio 4 West (Engineer / Owner: Andy Kravitz)

Produced by Dexter Story and Carlos Niño



Dexter Story is an artistic spirit in the truest sense of the phrase. From his work as a multi-instrumentalist for acts like the Sa-Ra Creative Partners, to his management role with Snoop Dogg and his turn producing Daymé Arocena’s 2017 album Cubafonia, Story understands the business from every conceivable angle.
Initially inspired by the music and cultures pervasive throughout the Horn of Africa, Story translated his experiences there into his previous album Wondem, followed closely by the single Wejene Aola featuring jazz luminary Kamasi Washington, both on Soundway Records. If Wondem was a brief glance into Story’s new creative vision, Bahir is a pinpoint refinement of that purpose, the fine-tuning and expanding of the world he created on his Soundway debut.
On Bahir, Story steps in front of those influences and melds his world into the one he fell in love with so strongly while in Africa. One way in which he’s done so is by incorporating musicians from both sides of this coin. LA luminaries are featured throughout, as are African contemporaries he encountered throughout his travels. Sudan Archives gives a show-stealing vocal performance on “Gold”, while the Ethiopian producer Endeguena Mulu adds impenetrable and psychedelic texture to the album’s title track.
So Bahir finds the polymath musician not stuck between two worlds, but as a member of both. We get Ethiopian tonalities, Ethio-groove, eskista, gurage and North Sudanese shaygiya dance rhythms, Afro-funk, Somali soul and forays into more contemporary global rhythms, too. Angelenos like Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and Josef Leimberg give the record its backbone, while African artists like the Ethiopian singer Hamelmal Abate give Bahir its glimmer and shine.