After two heady singles for Washington, D.C. imprint 1432R, Addis Ababa-based producer Mikael Seifu debuts Zelalem, his first release on RVNG Intl. When speaking with Seifu a few years ago, he posited his music not so much in the lineage of Western electronic music but rather "a variation on Ethiopian folk." So Zelalem's centerpiece, "How to Save a Life (Vector of Eternity)," opens with a trilled figure on washint, though Seifu quickly distends that and adds a beat like bashed tin underneath, a curious mix of the ancient and metallic. But it's when the furious bowed masenqo enters and gets coupled to a dramatic swell of keyboards that the track enters into rarefied air, both embracing hundreds of years of the Ethiopian folkloric tradition while also transcending its gravitational pull.-=-=-=-