RELEASED TODAY:
EMAHOY TSEGE MARIAM GEBRU - CHURCH OF KIDANE MEHRETPREVIEW:
WILLEM NYLAND - PIANO STUDIES 337“EVERYONE UNDERSTANDS ME IN THE VALLEY OF TEARS”
MICHAEL HURLEY PORTLAND MEMORIAL VIDEOHIGHLIGHTS FROM THE MISSISSIPPI DISTRO
EVENTS
COMMUNITY LINKS
The response has been amazing, with listening parties around the world (one in South Korea on Monday!). People gathering in independent record shops to listen closely to the self-recorded spiritual keyboard music of an Ethiopian nun has to have some positive benefit (though the bar is low).
Years ago, when we were first talking about this record, it felt like a specialized release, strictly for the heads. Emahoy was known for her sparkling, celestial piano runs. But this music was heavy, droning, and deeply spiritual in the black-robed Orthodox sense. It represented the flip side to all that joy and lightness people read in Emahoy’s “hits.” We weren’t ready. The world wasn’t ready.
As time has gone on and my own understanding of Emahoy as an artist and person has grown, these recordings feel more and more essential. They represent the direct link between Emahoy’s composition and the music of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. On a visceral level, the pure physical vibration of heavy organ music feels more spiritually elevating and soothing on my frayed nerves than any melody could. I can see why churches were essentially giant vibrating music boxes, and why that would appeal to a composer like Emahoy.
For those of you not using drones as your mental-health provider, not to worry! There are still stunning and never-before-released piano pieces on this record. It comes in a truly beautiful tip-on + foil jacket designed by our dear friend (and newsletter artist) Fiona Ryan, and includes 12 pages of in-depth liner notes by scholar and musician Thomas Feng. It feels like a pre-government-takeover Folkways record, and it’s my (current) favorite of all Emahoy’s releases.
As always, our immense gratitude goes out to Hanna Kebbede, Emahoy’s niece and musical guardian, and everyone at the Emahoy Foundation for their trust and care.
Listen now! It’s good for you!!!
Cyrus + Mississippi Records, NYC
Dear friends,
Today we release Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru’s “Church of Kidane Mehret,” and you can finally hear the great Ethiopian composer on organ and harmonium for the first time.
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Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru
Church of Kidane Mehret LP / Tape / CD
Released today!
Church of Kidane Mehret collects all the musical work from Emahoy’s 1972 private press album of the same name, alongside two additional unreleased piano recordings, exploring Emahoy’s take on “Ethiopian Church Music.”
Recording herself in churches throughout Jerusalem, Emahoy engages directly with the Ethiopian Orthodox musical liturgy. For the first time, we hear Emahoy on harmonium and massive, droning pipe organ, alongside some of her most moving piano work.
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Willem Nyland
Piano Studies #337 LP
Release Date: July 11th, 2025
Listen / Order
Sublime private-press piano improvisations channeled via Dutch chemist and Gurdjieffian acolyte Willem Nyland. Remastered from the original tapes and reissued for the first time, with illuminating liner notes by Matt Marble of the American Museum of Paramusicology. Licensed from Nyland’s family and pressed on high quality vinyl at Smashed Plastic, it comes in both standard edition and a beautiful silkscreened rendition of the iconic cover art by Corum / Psychic Sounds. Listen and pre-order here!!!
(Photo Credit: Nyland Group Archive)
On May 4th a public memorial for Michael Hurley took place in the park across the street from Mississippi Records. The sun managed to shine all day and the only gusts of wind were eerily timed to seem like Michael's commentary from the other side of the veil.
The celebration went on for a solid five hours. As we know Michael would have wanted, there was plenty of food and drinks for all six hundred people or so who came. As we know Michael wouldn't have wanted, a bunch of hoopla was made about how great he is. (if you ever wanted to make Michael Hurley turn and rudely walk away all you had to do was blow smoke up his ass about how great he was. Maybe the only benefit of him not being with us anymore is that now we can blow away!)
Michael's backing band, The Croakers, played on and off for the full five hours - rolling with whatever song, key and speed any act who took the stage demanded of them. The park was covered in beautiful cardboard cutouts and murals based on Michael's drawings - all made by his friends just for the memorial.
Over fifty musical acts took the stage to cover Snock's songs. All five hours of the event were filmed by the unsung hero of Portland musical preservation Craig "The Human Clock" Giffen
Here's a reel featuring seventeen of the fifty musical acts
We'll post the full five hours eventually so all fifty musical acts can have their proper due.
The tribute shows to Michael will no doubt continue and we encourage everyone who's interested to throw one together. Though Michael didn't love direct accolades or pomp, he did love it when people covered his songs, ate food together and had a good time.
Next up a bunch of great musicians are gathering in Los Angeles to play Snock songs. All proceeds from tickets go to Scribble's sliding scale mental health program! It'll be a truly beautiful show
AND Michael's favorite music festival in Nelsonville is preparing a tribute. I have it on good authority that Kornbred will be there to cause trouble!
Thanks to everyone who played songs or spoke at the Portland memorial, Michael's family for traveling from far off lands to attend, Craig for filming all day, Jill, Jac and the rest of the cooks for feeding everyone, The Croakers for being the toughest backup band in the world, Scott, Lewi and Gordon for doing sound and to all the people who volunteered to make the memorial go off without a hitch. It felt like a perfect little Portland event.
I suspect Michael would have found it....satisfactory.
ZZZ (Zig Zag Zitizen),
Eric at Mississippi Records Portland.
Hard to find releases from allied labels are now in our Records by Friends section.
Recent highlights include:
beautifully packaged and curated lo-fi, underground music out of Japan from France’s An’archives
definitive archival releases of Congolese electric guitar classics from Planet Ilunga
Lo-fi, spiritual jazz from Finland’s Ultraääni
Audika’s continued efforts at highlighting the work of Arthur Russell, including a stunning new live record
explorations of synth and heavy groove based Nigerian & Malian recordings from France’s Hot Mule Records
the absolute best cumbia and East African guitar from our dear friends in New Orleans, Domino Sound
A new drop directly from Studio One headquarters in Brooklyn, including a brilliant Dennis Brown LP back in print.
A special new archival publication documenting Bolivian tropical sound culture from the 60s-late 80s, Que Belleza
ALL DAY / ALL NIGHT DJ PARTY ON THE CORNER! (BRINGING ON THE SUMMER) MAY 31st
Cherry Sprout Park / Red Fox
That's right. We'll have DJ's on our corner playing records all day and all night. From 2 PM to 7 PM the mighty Impact Sound System will be erected in the park, blasting Jamaican hits, Cumbia, Soul and even Gospel - all courtesy of The Impact Sound DJ crew, DJ Cuchia, Golden Wilson, the Wayward Girls, The Beaches Crew and the legendary Jumbo. FOR REAL. I can't imagine a better group of DJs. Then, from 8 PM to 1 AM the Mississippi Records staff will be playing records at The Red Fox! Record store clerks digging deep into their personal stashes..... What could go wrong?
A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF NORTH AMERICAN MUSIC
June 13th, 8 PM
Jalopy Theatre, Redhook NY.
https://www.viewcy.com/e/a_peoples_history_of
In case you missed it at The Brooklyn Folk Festival, this film / slideshow / lecture presented by Mississippi Records founder Eric Isaacson is back for one night only. It's the entire history of American music condensed into a 90 minute story. How could that not be fun?
Making Time
On September 19th, Cyrus and Sam from the label will be DJ-ing to help kick off things at Philadelphia’s Making Time, exploring the Mississippi archive and beyond. You can find tickets here.
Spots are open in our new, improved CSR. Save about 20% on all our releases and support the label directly. We have some VERY SPECIAL Michael Hurley related bonuses for the CSR in upcoming packages. Sign Up Here!
EMAHOY TSEGE MARIAM MUSIC FOUNDATION
The non-profit organization Emahoy established in order to channel her royalties into music programming for kids in Ethiopia and the US.
Mississippi Records Portland Store
Visit our friends at the Mississippi shop!
They are open EVERY DAY from 12 to 7 PM!
(The stereo repair and retail shop is open Friday - Sunday, 1 to 6 PM).
WE ARE EXCITED TO BUY YOUR RECORD COLLECTIONS!
Mississippi Records Bandcamp
There are hours and hours worth of albums available for free listening, and a whole lot of the releases are "pay what you want" if you want to download ‘em.
Red Hook Mutual Aid
We’re proud to have a studio in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood, which hosts one of the most active mutual aid groups in the city.
