It's a risky album: Xhosa folk singer Bongizizwe Mabandla on 'Mangaliso'

When I first heard Xhosa folk singer-songwriter Bongizizwe Mabandla's new album, Mangaliso, I didn't like it. I told him as much as we sat in his Johannesburg flat watching the sun set.

"It's a risky album, you know! I wanted to do something that was different. I didn't want to be stagnant, and a lot of people wondered if I was going to do the same kind of vibe for my new album," said Mabandla.

For me it was too much of a departure from his debut Umlilo. Issues with his former label and other reasons meant it would be five years in between that project and this one.

Perhaps that explains, in part, my own difficulty with understanding this project.

My memories of Umlilo are built up from seeing him perform one too many solo acoustic guitar sets and expecting a similar sound to carry through on the album.

It took relistening to the debut to figure out that Mangaliso is a continuation of the ideas on the former; that much of what I disliked with this project - the electronic-tinged soundscapes - was the germination of a seed planted earlier. It was that, and learning that Tiago Paulo of 340ml and TATV had helped produce this album, that convinced me to give it another listen.

"The whole pitch was not to do something completely new, actually. We wanted to do something acoustic, that had a traditional sound and was folk-rooted," said Mabandla.

"We wanted to interpret Xhosa folk in a fresh way," he continued.

Explaining how the sound of the album came about, he said: "I went to a place that I didn't expect to go. I evolved musically while making this album, and I started to understand new sounds that I wasn't open to.

"I do think I have a specific sound, no matter what genres I do, and how I experiment."

Artists often struggle on their second albums with the balance between recreating the sound their fan base is accustomed to and evolving musically.

Does one repeat oneself in an attempt to retain old fans, or risk alienation?

WATCH the video for Bongeziwe Mabandla's song Ndokulandela from his new album, Mangaliso

Rarely spoken about is the day fans disavow anything other than what they were introduced to initially. It is human instinct, yes, but it's also an injustice towards the artist, who, through asserting himself in unchartered soundscapes, attains heightened satisfaction.

• Mabandla is playing at Oppikoppi and Rocking the Daisies this weekend.

• This article was originally published in The Times.