Bringing a message of hope through their music, telling the audience about daily issues and still producing an original sound.This is what the acapella group, The Soil, is all about. Having featured in the Fringe programme with their performances at the Library Hall, the Soweto-based ensemble aims to heal the audience with their music.

The 20 or so members met six years ago, while they were learners at Tetelo Secondary School in Protea North.

Singing in after-school jam sessions on Fridays, they honed their sound and now the four that are left, Luphindo Ngxanga, Ntsika Ngxanga, Samkelo Mdolomba and Buhlebendalo Mda say that their fifth member is God.

The group performs without musical instruments, with the back-up being beat-box sounds of their own making. Ntsika Ngxanga says “We have never accessed instruments as artists so we made our own instruments.

See, in your mind there is a band playing and that sound we express through our mouths.” The crew gives thanks for the wonderful support from the National Arts Festival audience as the Library Hall in Hill Street that never saw empty seats during their shows.

“The attendance was beyond our expectations. People were showed more love for the show. People are more interested in what gives them goose bumps and it is exactly what we are about,” says Ntsika.

“We try as much as we can to be intimate with the audience as we are part of them and we relate the song with their own experiences and ours.”

Video produced by CueTV