Manchester Collective joins forces with Ivorian percussionist Sidiki Dembélé for Constellations, a vivid musical journey bringing West African storytelling, traditional instruments, string music and Afrofuturist imagination together at The Tung Auditorium.
Dembélé and his ensemble draw on musical traditions connected with Côte d’Ivoire, Mali and Senegal. The performance features instruments including calabash, djembe, ngoni, dundun and balafon alongside vocals, creating a rhythmic foundation rooted in West African musical practice.
Those traditions meet the distinctive sound world of Manchester Collective, whose string players are known for performances that move freely between classical repertoire and new music. Lead violinist Rakhi Singh contributes arrangements of English baroque pieces and traditional folk songs, setting up a conversation between musical histories that might rarely share the same concert programme.
A new commission by composer and multidisciplinary artist Nwando Ebizie adds another dimension. Ebizie’s work is shaped by Afrofuturism, ritual, sound and speculative imagination, opening the concert towards possible futures as well as inherited traditions. The result is a programme in which spirituality, memory and science fiction can coexist.
For Black History Month audiences, Constellations is a particularly strong example of how African heritage can be presented without being frozen in the past. Dembélé’s musicianship is grounded in long-established traditions, but the concert is equally interested in collaboration, experimentation and what can happen when different musical languages are allowed to meet on equal terms.
The event also provides an opportunity to encounter instruments and storytelling practices that have travelled across generations in West Africa. Their presence within a contemporary Liverpool concert hall makes visible the depth and continuing influence of African musical knowledge.
With Pay What You Feel ticketing and a programme that moves between West African folk traditions, classical music and Afrofuturism, Constellations offers an adventurous opening to October – a celebration of rhythm, exchange and the idea that heritage can be both a source of memory and a starting point for something entirely new.
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