SA: Soda Studios launches Ancestors and Rituals series in December

Soda Studios has been spotlighting African talent to the world by hosting performances, listening sessions, interviews, and virtual fan rooms.

The new project is in partnership with local musicians. It will showcase their music locally and globally and seeks to create a new source of revenue for them. The company will assume all the risk and the proceeds from the shows will be split with the artists.

The series will kick off with the Festival of Sounds featuring South African traditional musicians, including multi-instrumentalist Pops Mohamed, uhadi player Luyolo Lenga and reggae-turned-traditional-musician Nathi Bantu.

The event will also include DJs Radio Bantu Native, Jab a Jaw, Soul Fire and DJ Babaganoush. It will be hosted by Paul Mnisi who will go backstage to interview the artists. The show has been designed to include interactive elements where the audience will get to converse with the artists.

The 13 December event will feature Nduduzo Makhathini, who is the first South African jazz musician to join US label Blue Note. The pianist combines US-style jazz with a deep sense of African spirituality.

Soda Studios has partnered with US online concert platform Stage It to bring the performances to a global audience. The physical events will be limited to 80 people due to COVID-19 restrictions and will start at 12pm.

Purchase tickets to the 6 and 13 December physical shows here and here and the respective virtual concerts here and here.