SA: Bokani Dyer drops Radio Sechaba album

On the album, Dyer continues to compose rich and immersive music, placing him among the new generation of South African jazz artists such as Siya Makuzeni and Nduduzo Makhathini. Throughout the project, Dyer’s multi-faceted influences permeate the set of original songs, resulting in a rewarding listening experience.

“This is the first album of mine that is really drawing on all my influences and putting them into one thing,” Dyer said. “So from song to song you get different types of sounds and music and different approaches, and there is some quiet stuff and there is some loud stuff too.”

Dyer, who signed a deal with Gilles Peterson’s London-based Brownswood Recordings in February, takes the music he has built over the length of his career into a new dimension through an array of influences. This is indicated by his collaboration with Sakhile Moleshe, as part of the groove-based Soul Housing Project, as well as his continuing interest in electronic music's sonic possibilities.

“When I was recording the album, I didn’t block my inspirations. So the music on it draws on African music, American music and, really, whatever sounds great to me,” Dyer said. “

In addition to the soundscapes, Dyer has deeply considered what he hopes to convey through the album. “The name of the project is Radio Sechaba and sechaba means nation. It is something I have been thinking a great deal about – how I can use my music to reflect the current moment in South Africa and where we’re at, as a people.

“This is pretty much the central theme of the project. Radio Sechaba is about what this nation – South Africa – is, and it’s a soundtrack that could go along with that theme.”

Dyer was born in 1986 in Gaborone, Botswana, where many artists from South Africa, including his father, musician Steve Dyer, were living in exile. It was “an exciting musical time when I was born into a community in exile from apartheid.”

Having moved back to South Africa as a child in 1993, Dyer’s album title evokes memories of Radio Freedom, the voice of the African National Congress in exile. In the three decades following its creation in 1963, Radio Freedom provided inspiration to the anti-apartheid movement and was a vital link between exiles and resistance fighters.

Dyer’s nation-building narrative finds expression in tracks like the reverential ‘Ho Tla Loka’ featuring Yonela Mnana, ‘Mogaetsho’,  in which he addresses the big theme of betrayal, and ‘State of the Nation’ featuring Damani Nkosi.

Radio Sechaba might be built around the broader project of nation building, but it also contains a number of songs that focus on the value of individual introspectiveness. There’s a call for presence on ‘Move On’ and call a for self-liberation on ‘Resonance of Truth’.

Other featured artists include Amaeshi Ikechi, Sthembiso Bhengu and Sereetsi & The Natives.