Manchester’s Central Library to host Open Mic event for emerging musicians
- A free open mic session for emerging musicians, rappers, poets and MCs to be held at Central Library this Friday, 24 February from 2-4pm
- Artists are encouraged to collaborate, and even put some of their lyrics over music made from rising Mancunian producers
Manchester Central Library is to host an open mic session for emerging Mancunian rappers, musicians, poets and MCs.
As well as giving creative minds the chance to perform in one of Manchester’s most iconic buildings, Rhythm and Words (RAW) is also offering the opportunity for participants to improvise over new electronic music created by some of the city’s up-and-coming new producers.
The free event will take place this Friday, 24 February, lasting two hours, between 2-4pm.
Hosted by the freestyler/lyricist MC Martin Visceral and DJ Jomo, the event is an opportunity to showcase new work in a welcoming atmosphere, or just enjoy listening to others.
The RAW event marks the culmination of Found Sounds, a five-day creative take-over of Manchester Central Library produced by Brighter Sound for 15 young musicians, DJs, freestylers and composers.
Over the course of the week, the participants will use Central Library as their base and be given access to the precious archives housed in the library, experimenting with samples and capturing original 'found' sounds from around the city centre to produce modern day interpretations of Manchester’s rich musical past and present.
Central Library hosts a sound archive of more than 2,000 audio files, chiefly preserving local history, as well as recordings from extensive jazz and folk collections which helps to maintain Manchester's reputation as one of the world's greatest cities for music.
Collaborating with a team of skilled professional producers, the group will use the archives for inspiration and respond to them, creating original tracks which will be featured at the 'RAW' open mic event, in an interactive showcase with the public.
Speaking about his involvement in Found Sounds, Morgan Harper-Jones, 20, commented on how the event's location has helped inspire his own music: "I love how we’re using the library as the base for our work and it’s so cool that the music we make will stay in the archives for other people to use in the future.
“I’ve only recently got into electronic music and I’m really excited to be able to unlock all the things that are possible with music technology.
Morgan added that part of the magic of the event was the collaboration with other local artists: "I can’t wait to showcase what I come up with this week at the Found Sounds/RAW event. It’ll be fantastic seeing how other Manchester performers improvise over the top of my music.”
Councillor Luthfur Rahman, the Executive Member for Culture and Leisure, said: “The RAW open mic session is an exciting and unique opportunity for young local musicians to perform in the inspirational setting of Central Library, while improvising and experimenting with sounds drawn from Manchester’s rich local history.”
Found Sounds is a Manchester City Council commission, produced by Brighter Sound in partnership with Manchester Central Library and supported by the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities and Greater Manchester Arts. RAW is supported and produced by Contact.