11–13 March 2022
Hugely excited to host a residency with the great Space Afrika, presenting a three day triptych of mixed-media covering sound, installation and performance, following the release of last year's acclaimed 'Honest Labour' LP.
The sum of its parts sees Space Afrika exploring the space; inviting the viewer to gaze at an interpretation of the living room, presenting the role and form it possesses as a place for ideas, creativity and collaboration.
Alongside Space Afrika, the residency features London-based producer, Charlotte Valentine - aka No Home (day one), and FAUZIA (day two), who interweaves high octane club sounds seamlessly in her monthly shows on NTS.
Manchester UK’s Space Afrika make music of what they term “overlapping moments” – oblique mosaics of dialogue, rhythm, texture, and shadow, half-heard through a bus window on a rainy night.
Their releases Above The Concrete/Below The Concrete (2014) and Somewhere Decent To Live (2018) were sparse, spacious yet intimate electronic abstractions, partly inspired by their observations of industrial landscapes and experiences of life in the North of England.
In 2020, Space Afrika released their most emotionally charged project to date, hybtwibt? (have you been through what i’ve been through?). First recorded for broadcast on NTS Radio before being edited down to a half-hour collage and released a few days later in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. As Black Lives Matter protests were gathering momentum across the U.S. and UK, the Manchester duo’s self-released mixtape captures the unrest with intercutting fragments of their own unreleased work. Described as a “dreamlike tapestry”, and hailed by Pitchfork and Bandcamp as one of the best ambient albums of 2020, sales of the mixtape continue to raise funds for Black Minds Matter UK and the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust in support of the fight for racial equality.
The duo went on to release in the spring of 2021, Untitled (To Describe You), a collaboration with photographer, filmmaker and poet Tibyan Mahawah Sanoh, generating a living, breathing study of the duo's Northern working-class Black British reality.
In January 2021, they announced their signing to Dais Records. Honest Labour, the duo's first full-length since 2020's landmark "hybtwibt?" (have you been through what I’ve been through?) mixtape expands the project's palette with classical strings, shimmering guitar, and visionary vocal cameos, leaning further into their enigmatic fusion of ambient unrest and cosmic downtempo. It's a sound both fogged and fragmented, at the axis of songcraft and sound design, born from and for the yearning solitudes of life under lockdown.
No Home is the artist name of London based Charlotte Valentine. Their first album “Fucking Hell”, a mix of noise rock and pop, was released in June 2020 and was named one of the “The 35 Best Rock Albums of 2020” by Pitchfork. “Young Professional”, the most recent album was released in November 2022 is experimental pop adventure with folk notes. They have collaborated with artists such as SASAMI on her most recent album “Squeeze” and have played with artists such as Space Afrika, Moor Mother and Big Joanie. Their work has been written about in Crack Magazine, NPR and The Wire amongst others.
FAUZIA is a multidisciplinary artist working in live, recorded music and audio-visual installations. Her work challenges the arbitrary division of genre through an extensive range of musical expression.Through the pandemic she self-released a series of attention-garnering projects – ‘Fragments, are you hoping for a miracle?’ and 'flashes in time’. The projects received glowing press from Resident Advisor, Crack Magazine, Pitchfork, The Wire and more. Her discography extends to production work for other artists like Kelela, Duval Timothy and Tirzah. Her remix for Tirzah was nominated for ‘Best Remix’ at the 2022 DJ Mag Awards.FAUZIA has been commissioned by Southbank Centre & King’s Place to present her contemporary classical works, bridging the gap between electronic and classical music. She has performed at the Tate Modern (London), La Cigale (Paris), Headrow House (Leeds), 02 Academy (London) and Pioneer Works (New York). In 2024 she opened for Patti Smith at the renowned St Paul’s Cathedral (London).
Rainy Miller is a multi-disciplinary artist and label head (Fixed Abode), hailing from Preston, England. Subservient to the northern city in which he was born and raised, the region’s near forgotten underbelly is sewn into the fabric of Rainy Miller’s music and motif.
The local Prestonian possesses a seemingly DIY approach to the arts, primarily as a musician, but isn’t bound to the term. Holding a heavily embellished view on context and perspective, Miller hones in on the belief that “technicalities can be learnt, and perspective is something every one of us holds unique; just like DNA.” It’s this belief that sees the artist striving to push the boundaries within contemporary popular music, creating without limiting himself to any given genre.
“A Low-key Masterclass, in finding strength in vulnerability” [boomkat]
