For Year One of our ongoing Re:Sound project, we paired musicians Jaydev Mistry, Yussuf Maleem and Jade Parker with archives at the Working Class Movement Library, Manchester Libraries and Bolton Libraries. The artists connected with librarians and archivists to uncover historic material which explored a range of themes including Manchester’s textile history, African celebrations in Manchester and the changing role of women in society.

Our Re:Sound musicians used these archives to create stunning work across a range of music styles which responded to these themes and also sampled the original sound archives that inspired their creation. You can hear these new works below. They premiered this work as part of a special event in October 2022, where each of the artists also took part in a question-and-answer session which provided valuable insight into their creative practice and process to our audience.

To empower communities to reimagine the role and importance of local archives, the sound artists were paired with community groups, Afrocats, KYSO and Pendleton College to create brand new creative works (music and textiles) which responded to the music created by the artists. The artists delivered workshops to inspire these groups to use their own artistic talents to engage with historic themes that are still relevant to life in Manchester today.

As part of our Festival of Libraries programme, these community groups showcased their creativity for a live audience. This event also provided us with the opportunity to announce and introduce our Re:Sounds Year 2 artists.

This has been made possible by The National Lottery Heritage Fund awarding Re:Sound a grant, raised by National Lottery players.