Ebo
Krdum

Blue-and-Yellow Desert Blues – Ebo Krdum wants to bring about change through music. The Newcomer of the Year award at this spring’s Folk & World Music Gala went to Ebo Krdum and Genuine Mezziga for their “irresistible groove.” A desert blues rooted in Swedish soil, carrying a message of peace, love, and harmony.

But the real highlight of the series is Ebo Krdum. Not so much for his stage presence, or how he makes use of the format. But simply for the music itself. Krdum is calm, almost reserved, and performs without fanfare alongside Robin Cochrane on the calabash and Sugar Ray Napunyi on bass. He himself plays guitar and sings in a style we’ve come to call “desert blues.”

A half-hour intimate concert is enough to show that Sudan-born Ebo Krdum has big things in store with his gently swaying desert blues, writes Magnus Säll.

Ebo Krdum was persecuted while attending university in Darfur, Sudan, because of his work for human rights. He fled the country, came to Sweden, and now creates music that was widely acclaimed. In 2017 he won the Newcomer of the Year award at the Folk and World Music Gala in Sweden. In his lyrics, he seeks to portray the trauma left behind by the dictatorship and the civil war.