Gigi:  "Illuminated Audio"

File Under:  Spacey deconstruciton of Ehiopian songs.
     Ehtiopian singer Ejigayehu "Gigi" Shibabaw made her recording debut two years ago on a self titled album of her own songs performed with an all star band of Amercan jazz musicians. The disc was produced by Bill Laswell, who has transformed the music into an ambient remix that sends the artist's voice swirling through spacey electronic spheres.  Jazzy bass lines occasionally bring the floating sonorities to Earth.  African drumjming throbs beneath some tracks.  Guitars and deyboards loop through chantlike phrases.  But the vocal melodies mostly disintegrate into wordless fragments and quiet echoes that slowly float out of earshot among synthesized bird songs and repetitive rhythms.  Though mindless as music, the album succeeds in setting a secuctive mood, and it also stimulates an interest in hearing more of Gigi's earthy voice-without an overlay of recording-studio tricks.

-Wilma Salisbury