Page 83 - FINAL_RPS Awards 2021 Coverage Book_Full (2)

Keary and Ivorian percussionist Sidiki Dembele. But before long, Selaocoe has raced to the top of
his fingerboard, combining vocal gymnastics with technical and expressive virtuosity on the cello as
if it were the most natural thing in the world, not a near-superhuman feat of coordination and
control.

‘I wrote this for my nephew,’ Selaocoe says, introducing the first piece, Qhawe (‘Hero’, with the ‘q’
pronounced as a click). ‘Children have a whole lot of imagination we just don’t have. It’s a beautiful
world to live in.’ There’s nothing childlike about Selaocoe’s skill or irresistible charisma, but over the
next two hours, with surprises at every turn, he draws the audience into a world not many of us
could have imagined. Most of the evening’s music has been written by Selaocoe himself, though
the sounds of other African cultures also feature. From the continent’s northernmost tip, for
example, a guest appearance by the cymbals, castanets and guembri – a type of Moroccan lute –
performed by the Gnawa London collective, founded by Moroccan musician Simo Lagnawi,
entrances not only the audience but also the other players with the swirling sounds of Sufi Islam.