I was brought up on a steady diet of local South African troubadours. My mom favoured acoustic guitarists and my foundational live music experiences were hushed evenings of deftly plucked strings by the likes of Steve Newman and Syd Kitchen. So there’s something about Derek Gripper’s soothing compositions which feel ever so familiar.
Gripper, award-winning performer, composer and arranger, is known predominantly for his emulation of West African kora compositions on guitar, and in 2012 spent a full night recording in a tiny chapel on a farm outside Cape Town, capturing Toumani Diabate’s virtuosic kora works on guitar for the first time. Ten years later he returned to the chapel to perform a live concert of the same material. This album is the result of it.
Aptly titled One Night On Earth, the album is broad, sweeping, delicate and deft in equal measure. He translates the dexterous melodies of a 21-string harp onto a 6-string guitar with the sort of finesse of a silver-fingered troubadour, and all at once the lilting flamenco guitar sounds undeniably African.
Organic simplicity largely drives the tracks. Gripper plucks a story from the strings of his guitar – from the cascading prettiness of “Mama FC” and “Tubaka”, to the lower-tone resonance of “Chamber Music”, he takes us on a visceral, extended acoustic journey.
There’s an undeniable gentleness to this album – a nuanced, complex bridging of cultural sounds awash in subtleties and delivered with humble flair.
Feature pic supplied by artist
