Soweto String Quartet - Our World (CD)

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With their fifth release, South Africa's own Soweto String Quartet have once again raised their creativity and pushed musical boundaries to record an album that's perhaps their best ever!

Fresh and brimming with vitality, OUR WORLD is an album that will return SSQ to the heart of the South African nation a people that were the first to welcome the group's now signature ¿¿classical African¿¿ sound with open arms on the release of their debut album, ZEBRA CROSSING.

As the 12-track recording shows, SSQ might now be a globally recognised group who works hard and with commitment at expanding their international career, but at its essence the four-member group is as rooted to the soil of Africa as the Baobab tree.

And it's the latter analogy that gives some clue as to OUR WORLD's music: it's an organic sound that sprinkles just enough jazz, reggae and even Afrikaans music into the mix to turn the album into nothing short of a revelation. For starters, OUR WORLD features an amazingly beautiful and whimsically uplifting version of ¿¿Summertime¿¿ that is likely to earn SSQ some serious radio play and well deserved popular attention. On this version, Khanyo Maphumulo provides startlingly beautiful, yet languid vocals, featuring lyrics translated into Zulu by Concord Nkabinde and with a distinct homegrown twist.

These are just some of the musicians who add to OUR WORLD. Themba Mkhize, pianist Johan Laas, multi-instrumentalist Pops Mohammed, drummer/percussionist Barry van Zyl, horn player and rising talent, Moses Khumalo, guitarists Mauritz Lotz and George Phiri, the International Festival Orchestra and many others add sprinkles of individuality in their playing that lift the album into the musical heavens.

Other classics on the album include ¿¿Take Five¿¿ (SSQ goes reggae and it's reat!), a medley of Afrikaans songs (including ¿¿Sarie Marais¿¿), a spiced up cover of Foreigner's ¿¿I Want To Know What Love Is¿¿ and an exquisitely rendered version of ¿¿Pavan For A Dead Princess¿¿.

OUR WORLD has a distinct global feel. From the onset, the album which was produced by Bruce Cassidy - was conceived as variegated in style, moving with ease between traditional songs, drawn from the African continent to reggae, rock, township music, Afrikaans standards, straight - up jazz and, of course, classical music. Time was also spent on ensuring verything - from the production aesthetic to the songs to the SSQ's playing - speaks of real quality, with OUR WORLD taking a full year to record, and fitting around the group's intense live schedule.

In the end it's nothing short of a beautiful addition to SSQ's growing body of work and one that every South African should own.