MANCHESTER: Hey! Manchester @ Gullivers

Thursday 19th February, 2015

8:00pm

Event information

Composer, producer and singer Lydia Ainsworth has been secretly writing and recording songs over the past three years from bedrooms and basements between Toronto and Brooklyn. What began as pass-time sketches between composing music for film and multimedia projects has over time revealed an enchanting collection of experimental pop songs with a life of their own.

Blurring the boundaries between indie music, filmic orchestration, and electronic music, Lydia’s debut Right From Real thrives on haunting melodies and draws inspiration from a wide range of musical sources – Verdi’s Requiem, Ace of Base, Bulgarian Choirs, Bernard Herrmann, Tones on Tail, Art of Noise to name just a few. This sense of unexpected marriages of influence flows throughout much of Lydia’s previous work which features use of voice sampling and string arrangements woven into a unique minimalist fabric.

Lydia says: ‘As I listen to the finished album I am reminded of the immense comfort I felt in the obscurity of it’s destination. I became entranced by the evolving process that took shape within those invisible tactile walls of tradition. Whether I was sampling instruments, writing lyrics, incorporating lyrics by my pen pal Matthew, recording multiple arrangements for each song – stripping them down – building them back up – I was guided only by a relentless instinctive urge to express what I could not in waking life. The songs approach dreams, thoughts, and inspirations that demand a search for the unknown, a search for something beyond what the five senses can offer.’

‘Like a fever–dream of Julia Holter merging with Grimes, Ainsworth’s future visions weave neoclassical flourishes and enchanted melody–mangles into cool 80s sound–beds, and it sounds fantastic’ – Dazed

This show is a co-promotion with Now Wave.

109 Oldham Street
Manchester
M4 1LW

www.heymanchester.com