Hymns of Bantu
Abel Selaocoe (cello)
Awards:
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BBC Music Magazine, April 2025, Recording of the Month
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Opus Klassik Awards, 2025, Classical Without Borders
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2025
The result is powerful, inventive and irresistibly enjoyable...This is an utter delight of an album, offering a potent reminder of the life-affirming power of music to bring joy, and to begin...
Hymns of Bantu
Abel Selaocoe (cello)
Purchase product
Other available formats
Awards:
-
BBC Music Magazine, April 2025, Recording of the Month
-
Opus Klassik Awards, 2025, Classical Without Borders
-
Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2025
The result is powerful, inventive and irresistibly enjoyable...This is an utter delight of an album, offering a potent reminder of the life-affirming power of music to bring joy, and to begin...
About
Abel Selaocoe 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.
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 African percussion to orchestra, solo cello and electric bass, Abel interprets traditional Bantu music alongside compositions by Bach and Marais, highlighting the continuity 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.”
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 characterises a vast array of human beings and invites a freeing and deep listening.
Contents and tracklist
- Abel Selaocoe (cello), Alan Keary (electric bass), Dudù Kouate (percussion), Fred Thomas (percussion), Sidiki Dembele (percussion), Abel Selaocoe (percussion), Fred Thomas (piano)
- Manchester Collective
- Abel Selaocoe (cello), Alan Keary (electric bass), Dudù Kouate (percussion), Fred Thomas (percussion), Sidiki Dembele (percussion), Abel Selaocoe (percussion), Fred Thomas (piano)
- Manchester Collective
- Abel Selaocoe (cello), Alan Keary (electric bass), Dudù Kouate (percussion), Fred Thomas (percussion), Sidiki Dembele (percussion)
- Manchester Collective
- Abel Selaocoe (cello), Alan Keary (electric bass), Dudù Kouate (percussion), Fred Thomas (percussion), Rakhi Singh (violin), Abel Selaocoe (percussion)
- Manchester Collective
- Abel Selaocoe (cello), Alan Keary (electric bass), Dudù Kouate (percussion), Fred Thomas (percussion), Rakhi Singh (violin), Abel Selaocoe (percussion)
- Manchester Collective
- Abel Selaocoe (cello), Dudù Kouate (percussion), Fred Thomas (percussion), Fred Thomas (piano)
- Abel Selaocoe (cello), Alan Keary (electric bass), Dudù Kouate (percussion), Fred Thomas (percussion), Ruth Gibson (viola), Sidiki Dembele (percussion), Abel Selaocoe (percussion)
- Manchester Collective
- Abel Selaocoe (cello), Alan Keary (electric bass), Dudù Kouate (percussion), Fred Thomas (percussion), Sidiki Dembele (percussion), Abel Selaocoe (percussion)
- Manchester Collective
Spotlight on this release
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Abel Selaocoe on Hymns of Bantu
20th Feb 2025
The award-winning South African cellist discusses his new album (out tomorrow on Warner Classics), which sets traditional Bantu music alongside compositions by Bach and Marais.
Awards and reviews
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BBC Music MagazineApril 2025Recording of the Month
-
Opus Klassik Awards2025Classical Without Borders
-
Presto Recordings of the YearFinalist 2025
April 2025
The result is powerful, inventive and irresistibly enjoyable...This is an utter delight of an album, offering a potent reminder of the life-affirming power of music to bring joy, and to begin to right the wrongs of the past.
27th February 2025
Here’s another joyously unclassifiable recording from cellist, composer and singer Abel Selaocoe, after 2022’s Hae Ke Kae (Where is Home). If anything, this time it feels as though Selaocoe has less to prove – the “classical” elements of his programme are mixed in with southern African music more indivisibly than ever...It’s easy to enjoy, and offers more every time.
26th February 2025
In under an hour of music, you travel far in distance and time on Abel Selaocoe’s second album...when it’s all played (and sung) with such warmth, the effect is mostly irresistible.
