Abel Selaocoe – Where is Home / Hae ke Kae (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Abel Selaocoe – Where is Home / Hae ke Kae (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 55:18 minutes | 1,08 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Warner Classics

Home, for cellist Abel Selacoe, is Sebokeng, a township to the south of Johannesburg, South Africa. But home means many things for Selacoe, whether it’s a physical location, such as Africa or Manchester (where he now resides), or the emotion of it that his cello provides. Selacoe 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,” Selacoe said in an interview with The Guardian.

Abel Selacoe 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. Selacoe 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 Selacoe’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.

Without a doubt, Abel Selacoe is one of the brightest stars in the musical world right now and will undoubtedly shape the future of classical music to come. The perfect Qobuzissime!

Tracklist:

1. Abel Selaocoe – Ibuyile I’Africa / Africa is Back (06:15)
2. Abel Selaocoe – Dipolelo/ Recite (00:45)
3. Abel Selaocoe – Zawose (for Hukwe Zawose) (05:03)
4. Abel Selaocoe – Cello Sonata No. 7 in D Major, I. 84: I. Adagio (03:32)
5. Abel Selaocoe – Cello Sonata No. 7 in D Major, I. 84: II. Allegro (02:19)
6. Abel Selaocoe – Cello Sonata No. 7 in D Major, I. 84: III. Largho (02:57)
7. Abel Selaocoe – Cello Sonata No. 7 in D Major, I. 84: IV. Presto (01:28)
8. Abel Selaocoe – Qhawe / Hero (05:45)
9. Abel Selaocoe – Hlokomela / Take care (04:34)
10. Abel Selaocoe – Lerato / Love (04:21)
11. Abel Selaocoe – Seipone / Mirror (03:22)
12. Abel Selaocoe – Cello Suite No. 3 in C Major, BWV 1009: IV. Sarabande (03:10)
13. Abel Selaocoe – Invocation (00:46)
14. Abel Selaocoe – Ka Bohaleng / On the Sharp Side (03:59)
15. Abel Selaocoe – Cello Suite No. 5 in C Minor, BWV 1011: IV. Sarabande (01:54)
16. Abel Selaocoe – Ancestral Affirmations (05:00)

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