'Home is where the heart is’ – it’s a frequently quoted phrase, familiar since ancient times in one form or another and made popular in literature and song throughout the last few centuries across the English-speaking world. For Abel Selaocoe, however, the expression rings truer than most. Although the South African cellist now calls Manchester ‘home’, his debut album for Warner Classics – Where Is Home (Hae Ke Kae) – poses questions beyond simple geography. It is, he tells me, ‘an exploration of refuge: the word “refuge” has a bit of stigma to it, but it’s actually a universal concept. Finding your home is about accessing those places that nourish you. It’s not simply about being comfortable, but about feeling that you are progressing, that you are cared for and that you are surrounded by a collective wisdom that surpasses your own. Seeking refuge is about finding a place of empowerment.’
IT’S NOT SURPRISING, perhaps, that Selaocoe is so occupied by the concept of home, as a South African living in the UK. But the 30-year-old’s quest to find a place of belonging goes much further back than his move to Manchester to take up a scholarship at the Royal Northern
