The Howard Assembly Room showcases new music from Opera North’s resident artists in a debut of new-wave jazz, Punjabi folk, performance art, and electronic music production, with all performers hailing from the North.
Maybe it's the ice cream or the moderately uncomfortable yet charmingly familiar velvet seating, but there’s something about a theatre that makes you feel safe. When Opera North’s resident artists presented their explorative new musical works, the room felt at ease, even when the stories told were dark and tragic.
“We’re going to flow and take you on a journey” begins singer-songwriter, composer, and storyteller Marco Woolf, Opera North’s compère for the evening. “Does everyone feel safe?” Says Woolf, the stage lights hitting his figure, washing him with a red hue. Like a classic baroque theatre, the room is U-shaped, meaning you face your fellow audience members instead of the stage, serving as a forcibly audio-driven experience where sound travels in straight lines. Woolf is pigeon holed at the top of the room, voice bellowing as he begins by providing a narrative for the evening for the audience to follow, one that explores the theme of dreams.
If three people experience the same dream - are the reactions to the dream the same? If you entered into a house and its walls were decaying, peeling off in sadness, beams splintering, bricks crumbling, what would you do? Be responsible? Fix it, mould it, shape it into something new? Or leave it, to decay further as the house breaks down before your eyes. This is the metaphor Woolf uses to illustrate how each artist has responded to their Resonance residency.
Part of Resonance, a programme designed by Opera North for music creators of colour, working in any genre and based in the North; the showcase comprised of four performances with each illustrating an exploration into a new creative pathway. For its seventh year, Ellen Beth Abdi, Rory A. Green, Jonas Jones, and Satnam Galsian were offered time, space, and resources to explore such creative pathways and the first performance took shape as performance art.
Ellen Beth Abdi a music maker proudly from Manchester, performed an experimental vocally led piece with MeMe Gold and Seren Marimba. The trio explored the diverse instrument of the human voice to create a sonically diverse soundscape that played with experimental dance. Using a looper, Adbi layered voices percussively topping them with gushing breathwork that provided a meditative space for the audience to sink into. A masked dancer, synchronised movements and ethereal floating across the stage set the tone for the rest of the night as vibrant and unique, unlike anything the audience may have seen before.
Satnam Galsian was next to perform, with her sound providing darkness, using a story from Indian folklore that followed two star-crossed lovers and their inevitable demise. A stand out for the evening, Galsian provided context for the story she was going to tell and spoke to the audience before she told it. Through a traditional folkish vocal, Galsian’s voice danced alongside guitar melodies that helped tell the story. Sounds moved from love’s swallowing mist to its nasty sharp sting, all within a 20-minute narratively driven window.
Certainly one of the most technically skilled artists was Rory A. Green and his band. The new wave jazz triosits within the same sound bubble as Alfa Mist, redesigning the meaning of Jazz through experimental guitar riffs that are impeccably fast yet still sonically smooth. Inspired by his roots in Ghana, Green takes major influence from West African music and his performance delved into his multi-heritage background through improvised jazz.
Finally, Jonas Jones an electronic music producer based in Leeds explored live performance by singing on top of his beats. The producer has made a name for himself under the alias Stolen Velour, characterised by breakbeats and expert sound design. The showcase demonstrated an exploration into vocals that acted as accessories to his production as opposed to a dominant element, melding electronica with harmonised, melodic, ambient vocals. Jones finished his performance with a DJ set which prised the audience from the comfort of seats to a two stepping dance floor.
It’s a two hour journey filled with untold stories that explore identity. Resonance not only gives a voice to underrepresented artists but also reminds us of the transformative power of music to explore identity, culture, and the human condition. Programs like this are crucial in pushing creative boundaries and offering audiences new perspectives. We all interpret the world in different ways, Resonance Showcase explores these worldly interpretations uniquely, turning stones that were once left untouched.
