Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach, Giovanni Benedetto Platti, Abel Selaocoe
Performer: Abel Selaocoe, Alan Keary, Alice Zawadzki, Cherise Adams-Burnett, Colin Alexander, Fred Thomas, Mamadou Sarr, Max Baillie, Sidiki Dembele, Simran Singh, Thandanani Gumede, Yo-Yo Ma, Elizabeth Kenny, Kadialy Kouyate, Ruth Gibson
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Warner
Catalogue: 9029622433
Release: 2022
Size: 1.06 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Selaocoe: Ibuyile I’Africa / Africa is Back
02. Selaocoe: Dipolelo / Recite
03. Selaocoe: Zawose (for Hukwe Zawose)
Platti: Cello Sonata No. 7 in D major, I. 84
04. I. Adagio
05. II. Allegro
06. III. Largho
07. IV. Presto
08. Selaocoe: Qhawe / Hero
09. Selaocoe: Hlokomela / Take care
10. Selaocoe: Lerato / Love
11. Selaocoe: Seipone / Mirror
12. Bach: Cello Suite No. 3 in C major, BWV1009: Sarabande
13. Selaocoe: Invocation
14. Selaocoe: Ka Bohaleng / On the Sharp Side
15. Bach: Cello Suite No. 5 in C minor, BWV1011: Sarabande
16. Selaocoe: Ancestral Affirmations
Home, for cellist Abel Selaocoe, is Sebokeng, a township to the south of Johannesburg, South Africa. But home means many things for Selaocoe, whether it’s a physical location, such as Africa or Manchester (where he now resides), or the emotion of it that his cello provides. Selaocoe explores this abstract sense of home with his debut album Where is Home / Ha ke Kae, providing us with the results through his extraordinary musical gift.
“As an African cellist, I’ve always been looking for a home. But home is not a geographical space, it’s the places in life that empower you—and these are not always comfortable,” Selaocoe said in an interview with The Guardian.
Abel Selaocoe is not just a cellist, but a musical innovator. Where is Home / Ha ke Kae, draws on influences from every direction, from his birthplace to the musical haven that he found in works from the Baroque period. Selaocoe takes two forms of improvisational music—traditional African and Baroque compositions by Bach and Platti—and seamlessly blends them. There are also two beautiful solo moments that explore the sonic complexity of Selaocoe’s voice and his instrument.
The whole album is just pure joy, from the moving arrangements of traditional African songs (the highlight being “Zawose (for Hukwe Zawose)” among many others) that feature cello melodies as well as Selaocoe’s vocals, to the simply stunning and inventive renditions of the all-too-famous Cello Suites by Bach (specifically “Suites 3 and 5”). A peak moment is Selaocoe’s arrangement of Platti’s “Sonata No.7: I. Adagio”, which puts aside the Baroque tradition of solo and continuo (usually another cello, harpsichord or lute) and instead incorporates baroque theorbo, double bass and the traditional West African kora—whose extensive improvisational lines blend sublimely with the organic improvisational nature of Baroque music.