Kabantu: Open Fund for Music Creators
Kabantu album UK launch, PR, marketing & tour: Freehand
“immaculate…a rousing display of fine musicianship”★★★ – The Guardian
“audacious, in-yer-face eclecticism.. a global experimentalism that is both breathtaking and very refreshing” – Songlines Magazine
“first-rate musicians and when all are playing full tilt it is really exhilarating…a very worthwhile and different approach”- FRoots Magazine
Kabantu are a progressive, alt-folk group hailing from Manchester, celebrating the space where different cultures meet. Their name stems from the philosophy “Ubuntu” meaning “I am who I am because of who we all are”. This October they launch their second all-originals, acoustic album Freehand: “bountiful, giving, openhanded, bighearted, liberal, handsome; a sketch done by eye without the use of anything to guide the hand” mixed and produced by Toby Burrow at Edge Studios (Macclesfield) and Eve Studios (Manchester). Performance highlights include performing at the BBC Proms (Royal Albert Hall), live sessions for BBC Free Thinking Festival, BBC Radio 3 In Tune, World on 3 and an array of renowned venues including King’s Place, Richmix, The Bridgewater Hall, TedX Manchester, The Sage Gateshead and Cadogan Hall. Classical festivals include Aldeburgh, Deal, Lichfield, Petworth, Fishguard, Swaledale and Spitalfields International Music Festivals with an equally impressive folk roster: Cambridge, Shrewsbury, Warwick, Celtic Connections, Musicport, Warwick, Orkney, Shetland and Timber Folk Festivals. Pre-COVID, 2019 saw Kabantu collaborate with the BBC Singers at the Cutty Sark and undertake a tour of England and Wales with Welsh orchestra Sinfonia Cymru, as well as touring Switzerland and Luxembourg including the Lucerne Festival and Luxembourg Philharmonie.