Cape music picks: December 9 2011

Pro Helvetia Cape Town, liaison office of the Swiss Arts Council in Southern Africa, will relocate to Jozi in the new year. Cape Town’s loss will be the Highveld’s gain but, in the meantime, celebration will overtake sadness with a farewell bash called Cut & Paste at Zula Bar this weekend.

Artists will include Swiss-Southern African collaborations Wavelength and Purple Park, Angolan spoken-word poet Nástio Mosquito and the Soul Housing Project, led by Bokani Dyer and Sakhile Moleshe. The event will also feature video art projections by Swiss artist Peter Aerschmann.

Zula Bar, 98 Long Street, on December 10 at 8.30pm. Entrance is R70.

■Tapping into Cape Town’s diverse musical history, Mr Sakitumi aka Sean Ou Tim is best defined by his versatility and plurality. He plays drums, Kaoss Pad, scratch pad, bass guitar, turntable and effects units. He is in, or has been in, crews as diverse as jazz-beat combo Closet Snare and electro-culture clash freaks Gazelle. As a solo artist, he channels all these influences to dissect Cape Town’s identity crises. This is postmodern party music that is as fun, fragmented and cosmopolitan as the city itself.

The Melting Pot Social Club, 15 Church Street, Muizenberg, on December 9 at 8pm.

■ The Cape Town Folk ‘n Acoustic Music Festival brings together a diversity of musical styles and genres under an all-acoustic banner. Embracing a 1970s folk concert style, it promises an intimate exploration of music’s narrative and communal potential. With all performances stripped down to the essence of the songs, guitar and voice, storytelling and composition take centre stage. Guitar legend Steve Newman is master at both. Guy Buttery engages what scribe Hailey Gaunt termed a similar “musical universalism”, bringing his prodigious finger-picking skill to everything from Afro-Celtic standards and nomadic Arabic blues outings to what he calls airy “Martian folk” experiments. They are joined by a spectrum of younger talent.

Auditorium 1, Cape Town International Convention Centre, December 10 at 7.30pm.