Abel Selaocoe Announces Sophomore Album Hymns Of Bantu - Out February 21 (Warner Classics)
Watch the Video / Listen to “Emmanuele” HERE
Pioneering Cellist, Vocalist and Composer’s New Album Celebrates the Sound of Cultural Evolution
Performs at Carnegie Hall Tomorrow, October 26
HIGH RES IMAGES HERE
“Selaocoe’s greatest gift is his irresistible energy, sweeping the audience up into the music in an entirely wholehearted way”
The Times (UK) ★★★★★
“One of the most captivating performers the classical music world can lay a claim on”
The Guardian ★★★★
October 25, 2024 - - Abel Selaocoe (pronounced Se-lau-chwe), the innovative South African cellist, composer and vocalist, announces the release of his second album, Hymns of Bantu out February 21, 2025 on Warner Classics. Abel follows the acclaimed release of his 2022 debut Where Is Home (Hae ke Kae) with a remarkable new body of work celebrating his South African heritage and tracing his ancestral path that leads into his vast influences including Western classical repertoire. Selaocoe will also perform tomorrow night (October 26) at Carnegie Hall in New York City, and his tour will continue into the fall across the UK and Europe. See below for his full itinerary.
Today Selaocoe has also shared the first preview of the album - listen to “Emmanuele” here: https://w.lnk.to/emman + watch the video here: https://youtu.be/foRRJP013o4
Delving into the unique modal scales and overtone harmonic systems of South African music before Western four-part harmony was introduced, Hymns of Bantu explores how cultural histories evolve. Across 12 tracks written for ensembles varying from his own Bantu Ensemble with African percussion to orchestra, solo cello and electric bass, Abel interprets traditional Bantu music alongside compositions by Bach and Marais, highlighting the synergies between musical legacies rather than their differences. “The crux of the album is about celebrating those that have come before us, and how we are all connected,” he says. “It’s allowing classical music to again sit in the same space as where I’m from – allowing Bach to sit next to overtones and the world of throat singing.”
Exploding onto the music scene in 2016 with the formation of his genre-breaking ensemble Chesaba, Abel has since established himself as a unique talent fusing the throat singing and instinctive vocalizations of his South African heritage with a distinct, forward-thinking approach to the cello. Straddling the musical worlds of classical, Global and beyond, Abel finds himself equally at home for his 2021 solo BBC Proms debut as he is onstage at mainstream music festivals, and now gives his personal cultural exploration its fullest expression on Hymns of Bantu.
Opening with the trilling fanfares of his longtime collaborators the Manchester Collective strings on “Tsohle Tsohle”, Selaocoe sings movingly to the melody of a traditional South African hymn, translating as ‘everything everything.’ “It means that we are all somehow connected,” Selaocoe explains. “I’m relating this traditional South African hymn to something that is worldly, letting people realize how this music merges with other traditions.”
That merging takes place as the lilting harmonies of “Tsohle Tsohle” seamlessly transition into the upbeat groove of following South African hymn “Emmanuele,” typically dedicated to the religious savior of the same name but reappropriated in honor of working people by Selaocoe in his composition featuring Alan Keary’s lively bassline. Bach’s “Cello Suite No. 6 in D Major, BWV 1012: IV. Sarabande,” arranged for cello and string ensemble, is given yearning expression in Abel’s bowing before Dudù Kouaté’s African percussion, and Fred Thomas’s prepared piano takes precedence on the fractal and enigmatic “Dinaka”, featuring the rumbling bass-weight of Abel’s throat singing. Giovanni Sollima’s “L.B. Files” suite is played with emotive vigor and crescendoing intensity by Abel and the Manchester Collective strings.
Yet it is on “Voices of Bantu” that Abel immerses himself in his musical family history, finding the fabric that binds a South African way of singing with Western classical repertoire most fully. Here he produces an achingly beautiful improvisation of Marais’ “Pièces de viole, Livre II, Suite No.3,” transposing melody through the modal overtones of his Bantu singing.
Ultimately Hymns of Bantu is an album aiming to highlight the shared universalities of people, the healing power of song, and allowing us to draw constant inspiration and understanding from those who came before us. With voice and cello as a vessel, Hymns of Bantu characterizes a vast array of human beings and invites a freeing, deep listening experience.
“It is taking what once hurt and turning it around, since when I listen to South African hymnal music it doesn't ring of colonial hurt,” he says. “It just rings of healing. Everything is in the process of healing and even if we don't realize where this music came from, we make it our own and create something new that sustains everybody. I would like people to feel when they listen to Hymns of Bantu that there's a fabric that binds all people together.”
Hymns of Bantu - Track List:
- Tsohle Tsohle
- Emmanuele
- Kea Morata
- Tshepo - I
- Tshepo - II (Rapela)
- Bach: Cello Suite No. 6 in D Major, BWV 1012 - IV. Sarabande (Arr. Thomas for Cello & String Orchestra)
- Dinaka
- Voices of Bantu (Improvisation on Marin Marais' Les Voix Humaines)
- Takamba
- Giovanni Sollima : LBFiles : Concerto
- Giovanni Sollima: LBFiles: Igiul
- Camagu
Upcoming performances: https://www.abelselaocoe.com/#upcoming-events-section
https://shorefire.com/roster/abel-selaocoe
For more information, contact Shore Fire Media
ctaillie@shorefire.com - Chris Taillie
gfleisher@shorefire.com - Grace Fleisher
About Abel Selaocoe:
A performance by Abel Selaocoe (pronounced Se-lau-chwe) is an immersive experience. He’s not just a cellist, but he transforms the cello into a vibrant tapestry of sound, using techniques such as rhythmic tapping, plucking, and looping, while seamlessly blending powerful vocals, stirring hymn tunes, and guttural ancestral voices. Selaocoe's unique fusion of percussion and influences from Africa creates an immersive experience that authentically bridges the classical and contemporary worlds.
Abel’s distinctive and unorthodox musical identity is a product of who he is and where he’s come from. “When you come from a diverse mix of cultures,” Abel says, “you don’t choose how things come together and how the DNA congeals, but in this land of incredible rhythm all of this stuff becomes part of your ancestral memory.” He’s clearly become incredibly adept at improvising with whatever possibilities present themselves. So much so that one of his first bands was a quartet of clarinet, euphonium, trombone plus Abel on cello. “They all came from church music and sang beautiful hymns. I certainly owe my process of working to my culture and the way we were brought up.”
Abel Selaocoe was born in 1992 to a Tswana father and Zulu mother in Zone 7 of a township called Sebokeng, south of Johannesburg. His father was a mechanic, his mother a cleaner. “It was a happy childhood I would say.” He had three elder siblings, two sisters and a brother, eight years older and also a musician, who took him aged 11 to a Saturday morning music school called the African Cultural Organisation of South Africa (ACOSA) in Soweto.
Although Abel was born after the release of Nelson Mandela and was only two when Mandela was elected president of South Africa, the legacy of the opposition to apartheid is incredibly important for him. “There are a lot of ways of protesting against apartheid,” he explains. “Some of those ways were taking art and saying it’s not only for white people, not only for one race. So in the heat of apartheid there were many people dancing ballet, doing fine art and playing classical music.” His musical idol was the violinist and teacher Michael Masote, who started the ACOSA school out of which came the Soweto Symphony Orchestra and Soweto String Quartet. “I think of him as the Black godfather of classical music in South Africa. He was instrumental in influencing township people to explore art beyond our own culture.”
It was Masote’s son, Kutlwano Masote, who’d studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School in Switzerland, who became Abel’s first cello teacher. Abel didn’t own a cello so he only had access to one at the music school once a week shared by other pupils. So Abel took an imaginative route to learning away from the instrument, drawing four lines on paper to visualize the fingerboard and strings of the cello. He used the radio as a tool to record and listen to an abundance of cello repertoire and later learned some pieces by ear. He realized you can work away from the instrument and says “actually it’s very helpful to learn to listen before the challenges of playing.”
After a year he’d made such dramatic progress the school got him a donated cello. His brother started a band of church musicians in Sebokeng “where people were incredible improvisors. I was the only one with a cello and I was looking up and learning.” With his honed listening skills he learned to assimilate the cello into African and improvised music spaces.
His teacher suggested applying for St John’s College, a prestigious private school in Johannesburg, and arranged an audition. With the help of his brother, Abel put together an inventive programme combining Bach and hymn tunes, which sounds like an early prototype of some of the music he’s doing now. He was given a 100% scholarship. “It was like entering a completely different world. A world of privilege. At that time I spoke English only at a very minimal level. Sebokeng is a great place, but opportunities don’t exist in the same way. This was a gateway into a new world.”
Abel spent five years at St John’s College where his musical experience moved on in leaps and bounds. This opened a new door to meeting and learning from other musicians around the world and an opportunity to audition for the various Royal Schools of Music in the UK. The one that appealed most was the Royal Northern College in Manchester: “It felt like a good hub of creativity. I wanted to play classical music but also wanted to be introduced to other people’s music and in Manchester I found much more access to that.”
Abel settled in the city in 2010 and it was there he met the musicians that are now his most regular collaborators and in his bands Chesaba and Bantu Ensemble: Sidiki Dembélé “an incredible djembe drummer from Ivory Coast who came with a wealth of knowledge and expression that I needed to learn from and Alan Keary, from Ireland who plays the bass, and came with a knowledge of real improvisation and groove that put all of us together.” Abel’s music involves the cello, singing, body percussion and a powerful lived experience. “I have always sung,” he says. “When you live in South Africa, it’s not only one culture that lives in one space. In Zone 7 there are Sotho people, Xhosa people, Zulu and Tswana people. So you walk past somebody’s house and they will be having a Sotho initiation ceremony and they will all be wearing blankets with red clay on their faces and all singing in this deep guttural voice. It’s hugely influential to see it and be around it.” It’s moments like this that infuse the life and soul into his music.
Follow Abel Selaocoe: Instagram |TikTok |YouTube | Facebook
Selaocoe is represented by Intermusica. www.intermusica.com
About Warner Classics:
Warner Classics and its sister label Erato together comprise one of the world’s leading global classical music recording companies, with an artist roster covering all genres of classical music. It is home to the fabulous classical music catalogs from EMI Classics, Virgin Classics, Teldec and Erato, featuring many iconic albums which have made history in the world of the record industry. The company boasts an unrivaled catalog of legendary artists – Maria Callas, Herbert von Karajan, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Yehudi Menuhin, Mstislav Rostropovich, Maurice André, Jacqueline du Pré, Otto Klemperer, Samson François – and of international superstars such as Itzhak Perlman, Daniel Barenboim, Nigel Kennedy, Hélène Grimaud, Natalie Dessay, amongst many others.
Today, the labels exclusively record acclaimed artists such as Sir Antonio Pappano, Piotr Anderszewski, Alison Balsom, Gautier Capuçon, Joyce DiDonato, Jakub Józef Orliński, Philippe Jaroussky, Bertrand Chamayou, Alexandre Tharaud, the Quatuor Ébène, Beatrice Rana, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Emmanuel Pahud, Vilde Frang and Augustin Hadelich. They nurture upcoming talents such as, Fatma Said, Marianne Crebassa, Lea Desandre, Sabine Devieilhe, Lucienne Renaudin Vary, Jean Rondeau, Yoav Levanon and pushing genre boundaries, the labels explore new horizons with modern classical artists such as RIOPY, Matteo Myderwyk, Carlos Cipa and Abel Selaocoe.