Album of Le Month: Cwaka (Mandisi Dyantyis)
Cath Del Monte gives Mandisi's SAMA winning album a listen!
IT’S NOT UNSURPRISING when you discover Mandisi Dyantyis grew up with a trumpet in his hand. The multi-genre musician’s latest album, Cwaka, won Best African Adult Contemporary Album at the 28th South African Music Awards (SAMAs).
Cwaka is about people, for people. As explained before a performance on Expresso Show in 2020, Cwaka means “Keep quiet” in the sense that “Sometimes you need to not engage when these ‘things’ are happening to you.”
It is a musical documentation of experiences and stories of the sadness, discomfort, and displacement that we all might be able to relate to right now. But, it is also a tether to hope – an authentic, grounding ode that we can pop in our ears to muffle the uncertainty of the current times even if only for an hour and three minutes.
The 15-track sophomore offering follows a similar formula to his debut album, Somandla. Both tracklists are peppered with purely instrumental songs and provide real soul food for thought.
The entire album is pure power. It kicks off with Mandisi’s almost operatic voice in “Umbuliso” before pivoting to the joyful bounce in “Impumelelo”. The album takes an emotional turn in “Ndibonis’indlela”. The sombre simplicity of double bass, piano, and Mandisi’s operatic crescendos warrant hushed introspection.
Mandisi staggers the tracks by giving the instruments time to converse amongst themselves in a head-bopping “Zamile” and a profoundly haunting “Isikhalo”.
If Mandisi hasn’t given your heart a good squeeze by this stage of the album, “Mabaphile” is sure to do the trick. A song filled to the brim with feeling and hard-hitting lyrics: “We sing for those who are weary, We sing for those who are heavy laden, We say let them heal”...and just wait until the violins kick in.
*chokes up*
Mandisi describes this album as a “reminder of the strength and resilience of the human spirit. That even when it feels like all is lost, humans always find a way to rise up”.