Synthetic Hearts Part II Msaki x Tubatsi

• 1Imini Yesithembiso03:39
• 2Green to Gold03:13
• 3Leitlho Laboraro03:39
• 4Off the Ground02:45
• 5Letters from the Sea04:07
• 6Summer in December02:40
• 7Izinto Zobomi03:38
• 8Time Against the World02:53
• 9Refuge03:38
• Total Runtime30:12

Info for Synthetic Hearts Part II

Endowed composer and singer, Msaki and multi-instrumentalist, Tubatsi Mpho Moloi are set to release a new collaborative album titled ‘Synthetic Hearts Part II’.

The upcoming oeuvre serves as a sequel to their acclaimed body of work, ‘Synthetic Hearts’ which was released in March last year.

Msaki recently took to socials to announce ’Synthetic Hearts Part II’ with its official cover art, as well as to express gratitude to fans for their love and support for their last project, ’Synthetic Hearts'.

According to Msaki, herself and Tubatsi created the two albums in one go. They have already released two lead singles ahead of the project namely, ‘Mini Yesithembiso’ and ‘Green To Gold’.

A year after the release of their album Synthetic Hearts, MSAKI and TUBATSI are back with the second volume of the project.

Buoyed by Clément Petit's rhythmic, versatile cello, the two celebrated South African voices continue their journey elsewhere, to a place where hearts, experiences and sounds meet, evolve and transform over the nine tracks on this second volume, which is just as inventive, experimental, playful and complex as the first.

Piling up voices and instruments, without geographical or stylistic barriers, in an atmosphere that is both minimal and lush, SH II allows itself even more freedom and digressions, ranging from spoken word to songs whose melodies are reminiscent of 90s pop. And the sound is more open to synthetic incursions, giving even greater depth to its folk and acoustic side.

The three artists crossed paths on Urban Village's album Udondolo, where Clément Petit was a guest on the track uBaba, and Msaki on Umhlaba Wonke. On Synthetic Hearts, they extend the scope of their collaboration, the discography of the three artists showing their ability to wander between musical genres.

Born in East London, South Africa, Msaki describes herself as a collector of sounds. She navigates with ease between electro, folk, pop and amapiano - with lyrics that blend the intimate and the political. Her second album, Platinumb Heart, won her the Best Female Performer of the Year award and the Best Contemporary Album award at the 2022 Victoires de la Musique awards in South Africa, and she is known for her many fruitful collaborations (Black Coffee, Diplo, Sun-el Musician, Prince Kaybee). Similarly, the music of multi-instrumentalist singer Tubatsi Mpho Moloi, a member of the Urban Village quartet, is rooted in post-apartheid reality. It draws on the experiences of his daily life in Soweto and moves between folk, rock, mbaqanga, maskandi and beyond.

The folk sensibilities of Tubatsi and Msaki are very much in evidence on Synthetic Hearts, although the album defies cookie-cutter categorisation, blending acoustic and electronic elements, not least thanks to Clément Petit's cello, which changes sounds and textures at will. Raised in a multicultural Parisian suburb, Petit was exposed to Afro-American, Caribbean and electronic music from an early age. His approach reflects this early immersion, his vast experience of contemporary and improvised music, and his perpetual quest to reinvent the instrument, rewrite its rules, and create new musical languages. "He doesn't play his instrument like a classical cellist," says Msaki, describing the diversity and complexity of Petit's playing on the album.

Recorded at Jazzworx, Johannesburg, and co-produced by Clément Petit and Frédéric Soulard, this work attempts to illustrate the inescapable crack in the human being, and above all the inevitable risk of loving. At a deeper level, this collaboration is both an introspection and a conversation, unravelling emotions buried in the confusion of relationships with ourselves and with others.

The album evokes the "responsibility to care for each other" and questions the way in which "we express our love for each other" says Tubatsi Moloi. In each of the songs, love, desire, bewilderment, pain, discouragement and personal quests are revealed and questioned in songs that vibrate with raw honesty and vulnerability. The album's themes resonate with its creative process, as three artists and two voices had to find a way to find each other, to come together, and to evolve harmoniously over the course of the songs.

Synthetic Hearts began with memos and ideas for melodies from Clément Petit. Msaki and Tubatsi then chose the ones that spoke most to them, in order to invent something new, together, in the same room, during a writing residency at the Nirox Foundation in April 2021, just outside Johannesburg. Composed in the Sculpture Park, the music bears witness to the passing of the seasons - literally, as they evoke the changing colour of the leaves in Green to Gold - and of life too. Relationships are born and die over the course of the album. Born from an organic, improvised musical material, without words, the tracks migrated naturally towards an exploration of the knotted and complex realities of love, in a powerful, spontaneous and creative process.

According to Msaki, the music is tinged with the 'three brushes' of their respective approaches. All this in a production that is both minimalist and full of space. She adds: "What started out as a constraint has become a beautiful way of giving the project a language". "It's an open and sincere conversation", Tubatsi says of the album.

Tubatsi Mpho Moloi, vocals, flute, mbira
Msaki, vocals
Clément Petit, cello, synthesizer
Frédéric Soulard, synthesizer

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