Manchester Collective - Heavy Metal (live at the White Hotel, Salford, 11 Dec 2021)

Broadcast on BBC Radio 3 back in January, the Manchester Collective ensemble (previously featured at last year's Proms - link below) gave this concert on their home turf of music for strings, live electronics and percussion.  The programme gets off to a lively start with Bryce Dessner's Aheym (Yiddish for 'homeward'), written to suggest flight and travel.  Things then settle down momentarily for Dobrinka Tabakova's trio piece Insight (studio recording here).

The first commission of the programme follows, and is introduced by its composer Ben Nobuto.  Serenity 2.0 is intended to evoke pachinko arcades Nobuto encountered in Japan, and its blend of pre-recorded sounds with fractured strings and percussion is a highly enjoyable wild ride towards a calm conclusion.  A couple of years ago, the Proms included a piece for bassoon and distortion pedal - now, here's a cello through a distortion pedal, as the Collective's cellist Stephanie Tress performs Michael Gordon's Industry.  Then to close, we get more pre-recorded sound with live strings in the newly-minted commission Squint, composed by Sebastian Gainsborough aka Vessel.  It's a great end to an ear-bending collection of contemporary music.

link

pw: sgtg

Manchester Collective at SGTG:

BBC Proms 2021: Górecki, Eastman, Tabakova etc