music · MUSIC

Manchester Collective: Black Gold

At Manchester International Festival, Manchester · 1 performance from Fri 4 Dec to Fri 4 Dec.

Rock, fire and oil. The elements drip, crash and thunder against each other in Black Gold. Feel the ground tremble as Manchester Collective morph into a bass-heavy ensemble. Sliding rhythms and revving engines from James Tenney’s Glissade rip open a chasm from which Luke Mombrea’s atmospheric Black Gold emerges. Tracing the history of a disastrous oil well fire, Luke’s audiovisual piece takes us from rising Californian mountains to the rumblings of industry – until we’re plunged into the inferno. Fragmented photographs and textural projections by visual artist Nate Mohler complete the story. S