“Hay Day” is the kind of CD I’d want to have accompany me on thousands of kilometres of sailing. It’s a “lie back in your hammock, look at the horizon and let the movement gently rock you” sort of album. It’s melodies spin themselves from lyrical yarn, the instrumentation’s brightly colourful and it’s all woven closely together by a silky smooth voice. Poetic, ambiguous words and jovial, sometimes theatrical play on instruments are an invitation to delve into layers of meaning. And it’s all taut… a nice taut mainsail to pull you along…

Tristan Waterkeyn’s been around. Born in Tanzania , moved to Kenya , then to Zimbabwe , where he went to high school. He learned to play the guitar to escape the rigid institutionalism of boarding school, and made appearances
in Harare for a band called “Substitute Parachute”. After that he spent three years backpacking through Asia and sailing thousands of kilometres (yes, with guitar in tow), before returning home to Africa .

To Cape Town , to be exact, where he studied philosophy … — Read more »