Rikalet to launch debut EP at Barn
Singer-songwriter, composer and multi-instrumentalist Rikalet de Lange will launch her debut EP Mother Tongue at the Barn at the Opera House in Port Elizabeth on Saturday January 26.
“I’m just in love with the possible connections music creates to others, to our individual and collective futures and our pasts,” Rikalet said ahead of the concert.
The musician – who uses her first name as her stage name – will perform with a band featuring Timon Oosthuizen on drums and percussion, Tiago Vital on bass and trombone, Curt Rix on trumpet, Tiaan Uys on double bass, clarinet and saxophone and Ashton Cusens on accordion.
Current and former Nelson Mandela University music students will also perform.
Rikalet sees music as her mother tongue, which is why she has chosen to name her first collection Mother Tongue, also one of the title tracks.
The five songs on the EP are a blend or fusion containing blues, folk, gypsy and cabaret inflections.
Topics such as addiction, existentialism, and the primal connection that music creates are central themes on the EP.
Rikalet said she was fortunate to get permission from former Port Elizabeth artist Anthony Harris for the use of one of his artworks as the cover for her EP.
The painting, called Ancestral Orb, was part of his Earth exhibition and refers to the universal attributes of the circle symbol which resonates with how Rikalet views music in general.
She sees music as a spiritual experience – “a constant omnipresent pre-symbolic inner voice, like the air that we breathe and the blood in our veins”.
Rikalet has been recording at Crescent Studio for two years and started recording some of the songs on her EP at Freshmeat Studio in Durbanville, which belongs to Cape Town band Mr Cat & the Jackal.
This means that there are percussion sounds, accordion, acoustic and electric guitar played by Jacques du Plessis and Gertjie Besselson.
She also had Calan Wolf from Ottoman Slap play double bass on Mother Tongue, which she says has a “bit of a rough edge with influences of pirate and gypsy folk, blues, but also jazz and cabaret”.
For a taste of what you can expect on the night, visit Rikalet’s Sound Cloud to listen to the first single, Whiskey & Honey, off Mother Tongue here: www.soundcloud.com/ rikalet.
The Mother Tongue EP launch kicks off at 7pm and pre-sold tickets will be available for R90 online from Quicket or at the door on the night for R100.