Auka & Ford Collier Live at Mandala Sheffield

Event information

Auka are very excited to announce a hometown gig at the wonderful Mandala Café Sheffield. Not only will audiences witness Auka joined by the octopus of percussion himself Mr Ford Collier, but they will also be plied with delicious and succulent dal from the Mandala kitchen. There are very limited tickets for this one so grab them while you can!

Doors and dal at 7pm, music from 7:45pm.

AUKA:
Inspired by the melodies and rhythms of the natural world, Auka perform genre-defying original music combining wide-ranging influences including Celtic music and jazz.

Auka’s music evokes the nature and landscapes that surround their home of Sheffield, taking audiences on an intimate journey over moorland, through woodland and along rivers. The trio consists of Kirsty Lomax on Irish flute & whistles, Matt Gilchrist on acoustic guitar and Joss Mann-Hazell (of Mishra) on double bass. The name ‘Auka’ comes from an Old Norse word meaning to grow or augment - a term that perfectly sums up the band’s organic and unique sound, where original folk melodies gradually swell from moments of delicate calm to those of frenetic energy.

Having released two albums and performed at festivals including Towersey and Cambridge Folk Festival, Auka are a growing presence on the UK folk scene. Audiences are captivated by the spellbinding interplay between the three musicians, whose intricate melodies ebb and flow in a “striking homage to the natural world” (Songlines Magazine). The band have a deep love of the outdoors and use their music to share their passion for the Right to Roam and the importance of access to wild spaces for all.

Auka’s thoughtful and playful music will transport you to beautiful places and leave you wanting to seek out the natural world yourself. Their blend of impressive instrumental sound and purposeful writing is not to be missed.

FORD COLLIER:
Ford Collier is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and performer of folk music who specialises in weaving influences from diverse traditions into his music. Since starting his music career in his teens, he has performed at festivals including Glastonbury, regularly toured the UK, released four studio albums with his two bands, and received a nomination for the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk award. While already a skilled performer on low whistle and guitar, Ford's curiosity led him to learning the Indian tabla drums while studying for his music degree, which allowed him to develop some of the richness of Indian rhythmic language in his music, and from which he branched out to further percussion instruments including the West-African calabash. The deep respect for the music of India and its intricate rhythms, and broad curiosity for the wider music world that this experience gave Ford has made him uniquely able to absorb and experiment with the different musical traditions he encounters.