About Fijori - "One of Africa's Greatest Gifts to the European Music Scene!" ~ AddisTunes

I was born in Eritrea and grew up in South Germany, with half of my family involved in traditional music, amid a multicultural environment. Cultures get mixed up when brought together and then you end up wondering who you are and where you belong to. Well, I am a child of mother earth and my home is where I am in the present. I carry in my heart the treasures of my African heritage. Every step I take, every person I meet, every place I see makes me discover another hidden part of my soul. It's a long journey, though.

Through an impenetrable jungle of emotions, attitudes and tradition you have to walk to extricate yourself from all that's blinding you until you set your foot on the final path to freedom. I hope one day in this life I will find my inner me, unravel my own mystery...

Till then I go on, feeling alive and singing my songs the way that I feel them. There is nothing to be proud of yet so much to be happy about. We are all the results of what is surrounding us. Still each of us is a gem, a unique creation of God. "...so get in where you fit in, go on to shine, free your mind now is the time..." (India Arie) ..

‘shareholder tom’ is the latest music project from Cologne’s music producer and multi-talented musician Thomas Berghaus. His previous project, “Family Vision Care”, produced the album “Careful” in cooperation with New York-born singer Gary Harrison in March of 2008 for the Unique Records label. Southern Germany’s daily paper ‘Die Süddeutsche Zeitung‘ summarised his effort: “When Arthur Conley poured all the passion of soul into his hit single ‘Sweet Soul Music’ in 1967, nobody could have known that a certain multi-talented musician by the name of Thomas Berghaus in Cologne would be able to take this passion, and revitalise it in the here and now ...”. Berghaus received much deserved recognition for the album – most of it however from abroad. Soul music is no easy topic in Germany – a fact which Berghaus is well aware of from his work as chief editor of the soul magazine ‘uptown strut’, publisher of music books in his own publishing house ‘Büro.9’, and his monthly radio show on ‘soulsender.de’, where he acts as both moderator and DJ.

At the time of ‘Family Vision Care’, Berghaus was looking for opportunities to do some work with various guest singers from other genres as well. He particularly enjoys experimenting with bringing together his own foundations of soul, jazz and funk with closely related genres, like reggae, afro-beat, hip hop or even German indie-pop. Today, Berghaus produces his music in his own studio in Cologne, which provides him with the freedom to keep working on his material until he feels it is ready.

In January 2009, Berghaus released his first ‘shareholder tom’ single, featuring female vocalist Fijori. Rita Gabir, aka Fijori, who now lives near Munich, was born in Eritrea (East Africa), and came to Germany at the age of four. Her debut ‘Single Warrior’ initially only came out on vinyl with a mere 500 copies on the Soulplex Recordings label in Cologne. For the single’s B side remix, Berghaus managed to recruit the Dutch afro-beat producers AIFF (Afro influenced Funk Federation). AIFF consists of Ton van der Kolk and Timothy van der Holst, known in particular for their cooperation in many projects for instance with Jazzinvaders, Soul Snatchers and Laura Vane & the Vipertones. The two also operate their own label Social Beats.

The ‘shareholder tom’ album »emotional value«, which is published as a joint venture with Soulplex Recordings on Berghaus’ own label ‘Büro.9 Music’, mainly concentrates on the synthesis of various genres in a variety of ways, and Fjori is also featured in an additional five tracks on the album.

Berghaus originally got acquainted with Londoner MC Travis Blaque via the Düsseldorf-based label ‘Unique Records,’ where he had already published an album - just like Berghaus himself. Travis Blaque is somewhat of a veteran of the UK rap scene, and made his mark in the nineties with Quiet-Boyz-Kollabos, releases on ‘Acid Jazz’ and Herbaliser features. Blaque is featured on »emotional value« on the tracks ‘The Promise’ and ‘Lisa you have to change’.

The piece ‘Work on you’ was written by Cologne-based jazz singer Alison Degbe, who also recorded the vocals for this track. Alison Degbe’s history includes having been a support act for the ‘King of Soul’ himself, the late James Brown, as well as a backing singer at gigs with megastars like Lionel Richie, Gwen McCrae and Grace Jones.

The album’s closing track, ‘Wer all die Chancen verschenkt’ marks a double debut: it is the very first text Berghaus wrote himself, and it is also the first time in his career that he has ventured a German language song. He recruited an old friend for these very special vocals: soul singer J-bee - she is based in Cologne and originally hails from Armenia.

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