Various Artists - Bring Hulde Aan... Onvergeetlike Duette

If you have checked all these boxes, Bring Hulde Aan…Onvergeetlike Duette was made for you. The question is: has it been made well?

The electronic tinkerers at EMI have found a way to cut duets between the living and the dead. Don’t worry though, there’s no magic involved, we promise. They did it for Frank Sinatra, they did it for Nat King Cole, and now they’ve done it with Gé.

He features on fourteen such duets with modern Skouspel favourites like Dozi, Jannie Moolman and Andre Scwartz.

Imagine doing a duet with one of the powerful voices in South African music history. Now, we know Gé wasn’t in the studio with these performers (at least not physically) during recording, but his resonating tenor’s voice certainly was. And it’s a voice that doesn’t really like to share the limelight. As fitting as opera-minded collaborations like “Ek Hou Van Jou” with Moolman may be, Korsten overpowers many of his partners so that you’re left wondering if all this effort was worth it.

It’s not all Gé, though. Bles Bridges, Sias Reinecke and Jurie Ferreira have also been given the studio treatment and feature in their own short cameos with living artists.

Possibly the best duet on the album doesn’t feature Gé or any of the above mentioned digital trickery at all. It’s an old recording of Koos du Plessis and Carla du Plessis singing “As Jy My Kon Volg”. Magic.

Onvergeetlike Duette may not be so unforgettable, but for Korsten fans it might be a fun, new way to look at the legacy of an Afrikaans music superstar.