Press release: Raak

A society marred by violence, war, lost love and a suburb forever changed by forced removals - these are some of the subjects covered by Raak, a newly released compilation album on which some of the top Afrikaans singers can be heard.

The album could be classified as adult contemporary and includes rock, ballads and pop songs. The aim of the production was to focus on quality recordings, powerful lyrics and strong melodies and arrangements, taking into account the different styles of the individual performers. Sophiatown (wie se Triomf is jy) is one of the very few songs (if not the only song) ever written in Afrikaans about this historical Johannesburg suburb and was performed live at the official renaming ceremony on 11 February 2006.

The singers include Jak de Priester, Coenie de Villiers, Karin Hougaard, Pieter Koen, Stean van der Walt and Mathys Roets, while the musicians include Mauritz Lotz, Denny Lalouette, Juan Oosthuizen, Lanie van der Walt (“Not my dog”), Sean Manley en Jaconell Mouton.

All lyrics were written by Hanné Koster. She also wrote all the music, except for Ek ken vir jou, which was composed by Coenie de Villiers.

Hanné is a freelance television director (regular contributor to Kwêla on kykNET) and lecturer in Broadcast Journalism at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth.

The album was produced by Whipstick Way and is distributed by Pictures to go, an independent record company. Raak is their first CD.

For more information, please contact Juanita Apostolis on 0768082522 or japostolis@gmail.com