IzangoMa, a 15-piece experimental collective hailing from Pretoria, South Africa, will release their debut album on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings.
Although Ngo Ma may only be reaching us in 2023, the collective’s roots stretch back to the meeting of core members Sibusile Xaba and Ashley Kgabo in 2016. The ensemble is a link-up of Mozambican and South African musicians.
“I had this idea of working with my students from Mozambique,” says Xaba. “When I first met them during exchange workshops, they were young men. We’d return every year to find these great human beings growing into these phenomenal musicians. We felt like it would be nice to incorporate them into this thing that we were doing.”
Fittingly, the album is a “collective effort through and through,” we’re told. While the duo of Xaba and Kgabo forms the backbone, it’s the “kaleidoscopic collective which feeds into the cycle that expands each time, adding something new on each iteration.”
Ngo Ma, which loosely translates from Zulu to English as “by my mother,” explores themes of creation across 11 tracks.
Alongside the announcement, the group has shared the title-tkack, which is “a cry to The Spiritual Mother about the discordant lives that many people lead,” we’re told.
Tracklisting
01. Agenda Remember
02. Birds (Of A Feather)
03. City Lights
04. Le Nna Mfana
05. Mgung u Ndlovu
06. Ngo Ma
07. Out Of The World
08. Phew
09. Q & A
10. Tribute to Johnny Dyani
11. Wathint’ Imbokodo
Ngo Ma LP is scheduled for May 26 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “City Lights,” “Ngo Ma,” and “Tribute to Johnny Dyani” in full via the player below and pre-order here.
