Issue 86 / March 2018

The new show is a multifaceted beast that features a triple
billing of guest stars, with underground electronic artist VESSEL
opening up proceedings with a collection of live music from his
latest LP, Queen Of Golden Dogs. “Vessel is this really incredible
electronic musician,” Szabo explains, visibly excited to bring this
collaboration to Liverpool. “His music, more and more, comes from
a place where he’s inspired by classical art and music, and he uses
elements of classical harmony and classical instrumentation. He
also builds a lot of his own instruments.”
“The set that he’s doing for us combines music for the new
album, mixed with various samples and inspirations that he’s used,
and that we have played, so it’s a real melting pot.”
Fresh from touring with Radiohead – having worked on the
orchestral arrangements for their 2016 album A Moon Shaped
Pool – world-renowned cellist OLIVER COATES will be joining
Manchester Collective’s Music Director RAKHI SINGH for the
middle portion of the show – a special set of music for solo violin
and cello, with an added swamp of electronics, including Steve
Reich’s celebrated piece Violin Phase. Szabo describes Coates as
“a really incredible cellist, right at the cutting-edge of new music
and the classical world, electronic, and contemporary music. Their
set will be all about finding out how these instruments can work
together.”
“The culmination of that half of the show is this piece, Industry,
by Michael Gordon,” Szabo continues, “which finishes with this
huge sound, just from one cello, but using this very particular
distortion pedal from the 80s. It’ll be good fun.”
The performance at Invisible Wind Factory will be the world
premiere of the titular 100 Demons composition, which forms the
main body of the show. A work for electronics and string quartet,
100 Demons has been specially commissioned by Daniel Elms, an
award-winning, contemporary composer from Hull.
“It’s a really political piece about fear and manipulation of the
media, and fake news,” Szabo says of 100 Demons. The content
chimes with Elms’ previous work too, which has been praised for
addressing disparate social, economic, and political relationships
between people and cities. “The setup is that there are speakers
placed around the hall, and the live musicians are there as well, and
it’s impossible to tell throughout the piece what sound is coming
from where, what sound is electronic, and what sound is live, being
performed now, in the space. It’s a political piece that was born out
of the time it was written in: the Trump era, Brexit, and the whole
fractious political situation. I think it’ll be a really exciting work.”
“We’ve built up a wonderful crowd of young people, in both
Liverpool and Manchester,” enthuses Szabo when he steps
back to look at what Manchester Collective have achieved over
the past two years. “It’s not only an edgy thing, we also have a
bunch of hardcore classical music dudes who come along for
the repertoire, and are like, ‘Oh my god, nobody ever plays this
piece!’”
And does Szabo see any conflict in the collective putting
down roots in Liverpool? “We see Liverpool very much as our
sister city. The stuff that is going on here, like the grassroots
music and culture world, is incredible. There’s so much that
Manchester can learn from the scene that is going on here.
People want to hear that it’s the real deal, and I love that about
this city. People are sceptical and questioning: they don’t just take
what they hear on the news and be like, ‘Oh yeh, that’s definitely
right, let’s do that.’ People want to know that they’re onto a good
thing, and that these guys are for real, and that the music is really
what we say it is. And as the word is starting to get out now – I
hope we can build this into something special.”
Audience experience is key to the collective’s approach, which
is evident if you’ve ever attended one of their performances. “Our
mission statement is ‘Radical human experiences through live
music,’ and everything has to come back to that,” Szabo explains.
“It’s about not using the music and live performance as kind of a
lukewarm anaesthetic that just blocks out the shit that’s going on
in your life. It’s not a spa holiday for us. We want people to come
and be moved and changed, and to have a visceral experience.
There’s a lot of good stuff on Netflix that you could be watching,
to switch off to for a few hours – but there is this incredible power
in music, where you go and have a shared experience with the
performers and the audience, and you come away feeling like
you’re a different person than when you came.”
With that sign-off ringing in your ears, you can’t really afford
to miss Manchester Collective’s next showing. You’ll never know
who you might have been by the end of the music. !
Words: James Davidson
Photography: Adam Szabo
manchestercollective.co.uk
100 Demons, featuring music from Vessel and a guest
appearance from Oliver Coates, takes place at Invisible Wind
Factory on 2nd March.
FEATURE
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