South African producer Sun-El Musician couldn't have known when he scheduled the premiere of his transfixing new single, "Portia's Chant," for July 9 that it would be overshadowed by his nation's worst spate of deadly violence since apartheid. But as the unrest in Durban and its surrounding areas spread and uncertainty reigned, the wordless chant and its soothing electronic syncopation (a style known as Amapiano) provided at least a few South Africans a temporary respite from the chaos.
It's merely the latest bliss transmission from Sun-El Musician, a KwaZulu-Natal native whose gift for low-key joyous jams has captured a devoted international audience of pop aesthetes, beginning in 2017 with "Akanamali" up through last year's album, To the World & Beyond.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.