The independent, South African record label Mushroom Hour Half Hour presents Open Letter To Adoniah, the moving albums by talented guitarist and songwriter Sibusile Xaba, who improvises the musical legacy of KwaZulu-Natal into an exciting, genreless future!
Sales Information:
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 guitarist Sibusile Xaba over consecutive days. With percussionists Thabang Tabane and Moahanganai 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 continent. Thabang Tabane's influence over the project gives it a spiritual sensibility allusive to the Malombo Music his father, Dr Philip Tabane, originated in the late 1960s.
Mushroom Hour Half Hour is a Johannesburg based, independent record label and mobile recording studio that unearths and records unique music from the African continent. Xaba's debut project is Mushroom Hour's first international release. The second will be the eagerly awaited debut album of Thabang Tabane in September 2017.
PROMO/MARKETING
- Key markets for the launch of the album are South Africa, UK, France & Germany (playing solo shows and festivals), although we will over time also be investing resources in other markets such as the USA, Japan, Netherlands, Australia and Switzerland.
- We will be using the following PR teams / consultants in the following regions :
Duncan Ballantyne for UK focussed PR. Duncan will also be bringing Jake Hulyerand Debora Ipekel on board for the campaign.
Dominique Trémouille and Damien Besançon at I See Colours for France focussed PR.
Lucia Zimara at Nuzzcom for Germany focussed PR.
Collectively, these PR teams represent labels such as Brownswood, Brainfeeder, Soundway and Soul Jazz Records and artists such as Thundercat, Tony Allen, Ali Farka Toure & Shabaka Hutchings.
- As part of the PR campaign, our consultants will be sending the music (on vinyl and digitally) to influential DJs and select tastemakers around the globe.
- We will be advertising the release in select 'tastemaker' publications like Wax Poetics and The Wire.
- We will be releasing 2 high quality music videos during the PR campaign for the album release, each of which will be directed by up and coming South African film makers.
- We will roll out our own digital marketing campaign, which include newsletters, interviews, fan videos, performance videos, photographs etc. All this material will also be available to our PR teams.