Experience an assault course for the senses

IF you ever feel that your ears need a reboot, then I have the perfect remedy: come to a Manchester Collective concert. Your entire auditory system will get a thorough workout... and it won't be just your ears. You will find bits of yourself vibrating in all sorts of unexpected ways - and you may want to change your whole definition of music.

- By WILLIAM RUFF

Their first piece, Aheym by Bryce Dessner is written for string quartet, its inspiration coming from the composer's Jewish grandparents who fled Russia and Poland to settle in America. Dessner calls it 'a musical evocation of flight and passage' and it wraps its irresistible rhythms around you from the very first bar. Its textures are almost tangible, as the players use their instruments in unusual ways: eerie harmonics, for instance, or sliding along the strings with the wood of their bows.