Dialouges 8 - Kaethe Hostetter (Fire Museum Presents)

Dialogues: A Conversation and Performance is a series of events in which we invite someone to discuss their creative process and present an aspect or aspects of their work. For the eighth edition we present violinist and composer Kaethe Hostetter.

Having spent more than two decades immersed in Ethiopian music — including eleven years living in Addis Ababa as well as leading the highly acclaimed band Qwanqwa, Kaethe is now performing a solo show called Woradj Alle (Impressions of Ethiopia) which is also the title of her debut solo album.

Built from live-looped violin and electronics, the album unfolds as a ritual performance: hypnotic, textural, and immersive—Ethiopian melodic systems refract through dub minimalism, psych abstraction, and avant improvisation. Not fusion, but more transmission— music that blurs memory, place, and time. Each composition functions as a vignette: portraits of people, fleeting encounters, and atmospheres from the years she called Ethiopia home.