Strings and wood become harp and drum accompanying cellist Abel Selaocoe's chants and throat singing in his new album, Hymns of Bantu, out this month. It's just one of the many ways he makes alchemy ...

On his second album, Selaocoe plays many of his own compositions, some of them rooted in African tradition, others drawing from the baroque repertoire that he’s felt drawn to since he was a child.