Words by Justin Turford
For the many people who found themselves hooked on the funky, life-enhancing sophistication of Francis Falceto’s acclaimed ‘Éthiopiques’ compilations that first enlightened Western audiences in the late 90s, the brilliant second album from Lina Langendorf’s exceptional band offers a fresh and fierce new perspective on that wonderful dancing music that was pioneered and developed in the state run orchestras of Emperor Haile Selassie and the subsequent military administrations of 60s and 70s Ethiopia.
Dynamic, urgent and with a powerful groove sensibility, Lina and her fellow Swedes have taken the template written by Mulatu Atstake (who is undertaking his final tour this year) et al and run with it, her compositional talents tempered and mentored in the clubs of Addis Ababa and Stockhom, sounding as relevant and vital as anything coming out of the alt-jazz scenes of, say, London or Chicago.
"Amazing saxophone player, big respect. Everybody loves you. They say you ‘are’ Ethio-jazz." - Mulatu Astatke on Lina Langendorf
Langendorf United (Photo by Johan Bergmark)
Langendorf United took its time to be born: members of Lina’s band hark back to her music student years in Sweden around the turn of the Millenium. Her first exposure to the sound of ‘Swinging Addis Ababa’ came via the soundtrack of Jim Jarmusch's 2005 film ‘Broken Flowers’ (which featured several of Mulatu’s recordings) but it was in 2012 and with a scholarship to go to the Ethiopian capital that her mutual love affair with the artistry and artists from this East African country really began. From a family of renowned musicians (her great-grandfather is a legendary folk musician in Sweden) and music-lovers and a saxophonist since the age of twelve, the serpentine horn playing of Getatchew Mekurya and the Ethiopian scales system must have been a revelation.
It took Lina to reach her forties before taking the plunge with their first album in 2023, a lifetime of playing with some incredible international talents getting her ready for this moment - and what a moment it was. ‘Yeahno Yowouw Land’ was an insane debut of galaxian Sun Ra trippiness and deadly effective Afro-jazz collisions, a straight ten out of ten. Free jazz, Ethiopian and North African vibrations, NOLA-style dirges and a kind of revolutionary rage all enveloped in the heaviest of productions, it was exactly what I’ve been searching for.
There is the same meatiness to the production on ‘Undercover Beast’ as there was on the first album. It’s not a delicate or subtle retreading of classic Ethio-jazz tropes despite the intricate virtuosity that the performers display. The music is ridiculously strong, carved out of a deep energy that somehow connects the heat and history of this ancient part of East Africa and the dense, darkened vistas of Scandinavia - Ethio-Scandi-Modal Jazz if you can take another micro-genre. Add in Cabo Verde (‘Cesária’), post-punk-funk attitude (‘Soaring with the Wondrous Four’), Cape Town bounce and interstellar psychedelia and we have another straight ten.
The opening track’s title carries the weight of the first line of a novella as though Lina knows herself what a powerful record they have created. ‘And So It Begins’ is a welcome, a brief call to arms made up of Ethio-inspired saxophones, dubbed out keys and just a touch of double bass, a paragraph for the band to flesh out into a full story.
It also becomes apparent that this is an introduction to the band members as much as an introduction to the album. One of two Lina-penned compositions dedicated to her band, ‘So-Ma-Li (Ode to MDOMA)’ sounds like Herbie Hancock jamming with one of the great Mogadishu dance bands of the 70s and 80s. With complex saxophone and string arrangements that sound like a section from an Umm Kulthum epic, tripped out keys and a relentless tumbling groove, the song exemplifies the magpie tendencies of the band. The ‘MDOMA’ of the song title signposts her synergestic musical comrades Martin Hederos (keys/viola), Daniel Bingert (keys/guitar), Ole Morten Vågan (double bass) and Andreas Werliin (drums), who all reveal their individual and collective gifts from the first hit.
”Cesária's heavenly voice has been carrying me through life since the very first time I heard her on one of Salif Keita’s albums where they are singing a beautiful duet in the song ‘Yamore’. As soon as the melody of this composition came to me I could hear Cesária with her voice, singing it”
As quoted above, Lina’s love of the legendary Cabo Verdean morna singer Cesária Évora goes way back. A decade in the laboratory, the hauntingly beautiful ‘Cesária’ was waiting for the right bassline which finally emerged as a trio of basslines that all accompany some of the most perfect playing on the record. The heartwrenching Creole blues that Évora was famous for finds itself aligned with the Scandinavian jazz traditions of mournful chords and nostalgic yearning. Lina’s sax aches with sensitivity and saudade as violins, gentle keys and the rhythm section dance with each other as they invite couples to join in the poetic courtship. Deeply moving, one could easily imagine Évora approving of this tribute to her.
As the title suggests, ‘Undercover Beast’ (listen at top) growls with intent as it takes the Ethiopian Pentatonic Anchihoye scale and adds bite. The horn riffs reflect the ‘golden age’ of Ethiopian funky jazz but Langendorf United tear into the composition with a venom reminiscent of some of the tracks from the first album. Firing from the hip, the song starts tentatively with bass and saxophone, the melodies uncoiling in sensuous circular motifs before loosely martial drums and a wild vintage keyboard enter the fray. From now on, this is jazz as tribal combat. If you’re a fan of when Shabaka Hutchings was burning aggressive repetitions on his tenor sax as he led the line for Sons Of Kemet and The Comet Is Coming, then you will appreciate Lina’s ferocious mastery. She shares that ability to find the rawest of emotion and expression through her horn, a cauldron of fire and sensitivity, melody and groove.
Translated from the Amharic as ‘Ethiopia, I Love You’, the joyful bounce of ‘Ethiopia Ewdeshalehu’ manages to hit that spacey Afro-disco spot that William Onyeabor or even Talking Heads are celebrated for. With a cheeky, squidgy synthesizer line, a brilliantly solid bassline and an intriguing and rarely embellished drum groove, the track is elegantly propulsive, Lina’s knack for instantly memorable melodies and harmonies showcased all over the song. A leftfield dancefloor hit for the future.
Langendorf United (Photo by Sofia Sjögren)
‘Soaring with the Wondrous Four’ is the second tune on ‘Undercover Beast’ dedicated to Lina’s band members and it cooks! Held tight by a rubbery bassline and another immediate melody, the tune is definitely more European in sound, if you can imagine some obscure Italian horror film soundtracked by a post-punk Embryo then you’re nearly there.
If there’s a track on the album that exemplifies the band’s collective energy at their best, it is probably ‘From Longitude to Lassitude - Lullabies and Laments’, a ten minute journey of post-Coltrane spiritual intensity, the churchlike “lullabies and laments”, bookends to a turmoil of hot twisting jazz, colliding synths, fiery horn lines and full drum kit drama held strong as always by Ole Morten Vågan’s pinpoint double bass.
One of Ethiopia’s most famous singers, the “Abyssinian Elvis”, Alemayehu Eshete had promised Lina that he would sing on what would become ‘Alemayehu’ but sadly he passed away in 2021. Lina had performed alongside him in Addis on several occasions and we can only imagine how he would have graced the song, however, as an instrumental alone, the song is still a success. Perhaps because of who she intended to sing on the composition, the structure of the piece is one of the more complex and sophisticated on the album. Classically Ethio-jazz on the surface, there is also an unsettling tone, a dark psychedelic edge behind the groove. Maybe it’s just me.
There’s a spiritual, even sacred element to Langendorf United’s music that was apparent on the closer ‘Hymn’ on their debut album and the equally religious sounding ‘Prayers, Faith and Hope’ wraps up this amazing record with a gorgeous three-part suite that draws heavily from the South African Cape Jazz tradition. The first part is all languid SA style horn lines that merge seamlessly into a dreamlike Scandi reverie before the song transforms into a jumping township groove pulsing with a wonderful looping bass and synth hook as Lina blows positively charged melodic phrases. This highly danceable middle suite ends with a crash and an extended silence before the beautiful Abdullah Ibrahim inspired motif from the intro closes the piece, patiently and sublimely.
‘Undercover Beast’ reinforces the fact that Langendorf United really are quite an extraordinary band. Their collective musical talents, group synergy and Lina Langendorf’s finely tuned compositional brilliance means that the five Swedes can take traditions from other countries and histories and dare to spin them into dynamic new places, always with respect to the source but with an artfulness and courage that deserves wide acclaim. 10/10.
Released on Sing a song fighter on Sept 26th 2025
BUY HERE! https://singasongfighter.bandcamp.com/album/undercover-beast