In his second album for Warner Classics, cellist, vocalist, and composer Abel Selaocoe celebrates his South African heritage with traditional Bantu music played alongside cello-centric “Western Classical” baroque or baroque-inspired works. Much of the album features Selaocoe original compositions or arrangements on which he sings and plays both percussion and cello with a full band that includes string ensemble (the Manchester Collective), piano, drums, and electric bass. The more conventionally “classical” works on the album include an arrangement of the Sarabande from Bach’s Cello Suite No. 6 and Giovanni Sollima’s L.B. Files (an homage to Luigi Boccherini), both performed by Selaocoe as cellist with the Manchester Collective. The album includes an improvisation on Marin Marais’s “Les voix humaines,” originally for viola da gamba, but here as an austere and mysterious song with Selaocoe accompanying himself on the cello.

All works apart from the Bach Sarabande are new to the WFMT library.