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Open Letter to Adoniah

by Sibusile Xaba

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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      €11 EUR  or more

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    CD Digipack containing both Sibusile Xaba's debut albums - 'Unlearning' and 'Open Letter to Adoniah'
    Cover Art & Design by Graeme Arendse

    Includes unlimited streaming of Open Letter to Adoniah via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      €12 EUR or more 

     

  • Limited First Edition Vinyl
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Limited First Edition Heavyweight 180g Vinyl - only 600 copies pressed.
    Mastered by Frank Merritt at the Carvery
    Cover Art & Design by Graeme Arendse

    Includes unlimited streaming of Open Letter to Adoniah via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

  • Test Pressing from First Press, 2017
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Only 1 for sale from an edition of 5

    140-gram black vinyl LP test pressing

    If you are based in Johanneburg and would like to purchase this test pressing, you can email us at connect@mushroomhour.com and we can discuss cheaper delivery options.

    DELIVERY TO ANY DESTINATION OUTSIDE SOUTH AFRICA MAY BE DELAYED AS THE SOUTH AFRICAN POST OFFICE IS CURRENTLY NOT SHIPPING INTERNATIONALLY IN ACCORDANCE WITH SA GOVERNMENT COVID-19 RELATED POLICIES

    Includes unlimited streaming of Open Letter to Adoniah via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

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Wampona 05:29
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Emazulwini 05:18
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Nomaphupho 04:52
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Liyabukwa 03:57
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about

"This music is extraordinary" - Gilles Peterson (BBC 6)

"An astonishing debut from a unique talent" The Guardian

'Open Letter To Adoniah' is one half of the debut double album by Sibusile Xaba.

A lynchpin in South Africa's new generation of jazz musicians, KwaZulu-Natal-born guitarist and vocalist Sibusile Xaba has all the makings of an acoustic guitar master. With a vocal style that is part dreamscaping and part ancestral invocation, Xaba divines as opposed to plainly singing. Combined with a guitar style that is rooted in expressive picking, Xaba's music shatters the confines of genre, taking only the fundamentals from mentors such as Madala Kunene and Dr Philip Tabane and imbuing these with a mythology and improvisational intensity all of his own.

'Open Letter to Adoniah' is an album reverent of life and its connectedness to a higher source. The music emanates from dreams revealed to Xaba over consecutive days and most of the album was recorded live in the mountains of Magaliesberg outside Johannesburg in the winter of 2016.

With percussionists Thabang Tabane and Dennis Moanganei Magagula, the trio coalesces both geographic and spiritual influences, hinting at Maskandi (a music style dominant in Xaba’s native KwaZulu-Natal) and the improvisational culture of South Africa's jazz avant garde. Collectively, the musicians remold these influences, situating them within rhythms that span the African Continent. Thabang Tabane’s influence over the project gives it a spiritual sensibility allusive to the Malombo Music his father, the legendary Dr Philip Tabane, originated in the early 1960s.

credits

released August 4, 2017

Mentored by Thabang Tabane
Music received by Sibusile Xaba
Music created by Sibusile Xaba (guitar, vocals & nomaphupho), Thabang Tabane (malombo drums, hlwahlwadi, toys & vocals) & Dennis Moanganei Magagula (djembe, hlwahlwadi & toys)

Recorded live at Sima Kade, Magaliesberg on 26 & 27 June 2016, except (i) 'Nomaphupho' and 'Nyanda Yeni (Interlude)', which were recorded live at U – The Space, Sunnyside on 29 January 2016; and (ii) 'Inkululeko', which was recorded live at the Tabane household, Mamelodi on 10 April 2016.

Recorded by Andrew Curnow & Nhlanhla Mngadi
Mixed by João Orecchia
Mastered by Frank Merritt at the Carvery

Artwork & Cover Design by Graeme Arendse
Published by Hour Half Hour Publishing

Lovingly presented to you by Mushroom Hour Half Hour

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about

Sibusile Xaba Pretoria, South Africa

Sibusile Xaba carries forth the Maskandi / Mbaqanga tradition of the KwaZulu Natal midlands, from where he originates. Steeped in the lineage of Zulu guitar giant Madala Kunene (Sibusile’s first mentor) & warrior chants of vocal master, Shaluza Max, he not only owns these influences, but pushes the envelope as only a maestro with a keen ear for the future does. ... more

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