CONSTELLATIONS

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Sidiki Dembélé Tama

John Playford Wallom Green

Sidiki Dembélé Ita

Henry Purcell The Old Bachelor Z. 607: Hornpipe

Nwando Ebizie For You, small in the embrace of untethered, unwinding possible futures (world premiere)

Traditional Johnny Faa

Sidiki Dembélé Chefari Dundun

Featuring arrangements by Rakhi Singh, Bjarte Eike, Will Newell and Ali Vennart

Manchester Collective

Nicky Sweeney Violin
Simmy Singh Violin
Kaylee Ramella Violin
Ruth Gibson Viola
Lucy Nolan Viola
Peggy Nolan Cello
Alan Keary Bass guitar, mandolin, guitar

Sidiki Dembélé Ensemble

Fatima Damango Vocals
Morybo Kone Dundun
Solo Diabate Balafon
Mike King Bass guitar

Rakhi Singh

Constellations was born of a deep mutual respect between Sidiki and I, and a curiosity to find where the music and messages of our different cultures and heritage could meet.  

Having travelled to Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire to study drumming and dancing, a desire to understand more of his language arose and I could start to sense the role that Western classically-trained string players might add to his musical world. This was exciting to me and the fruits of what you experience today are the result of months of absorbing his music and asking myself, “what can we meaningfully add to this?”

As you will hear, there is a lot of joy in the music from the Côte d’Ivoire. My intention was to find Western classical music that mirrored and complemented this abandon and deep sense of groove. I found this in the dances of Purcell and Playford – music which already blurs the lines between folk and ‘trained’ music, music of the earth and full of human spirit. 

Music enables me to feel and understand things that I cannot express through words; it crosses language and geographical barriers and this is what Constellations is: a connection of human spirits from different lands creating a unified language through listening, respect and empathy.

Sidiki Dembélé

I'm a percussionist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, performer and teacher specialising in West African traditions, particularly those from Manding countries. Coming from a griot family, music is part of my life and heritage. In the West African tradition, griots are storytellers, historians, musicians and custodians of memory, carrying knowledge from one generation to the next through words, rhythm, song and ceremony.

I was born in Côte d’Ivoire, and I grew up in a little town called Abobo near Abidjan. That's where my journey with music started. I moved to Manchester in 2009, but before that, I had toured to London in 2008 with Africa, Africa. I’m inspired by the music I grew up with, and it is part of my daily life.

The music in Constellations is from different West African traditions, from ceremonies, celebration and storytelling. The new music I composed for this project uses some rhythms that are held by the percussion, which naturally brings energy and movement, and the strings add cinematic atmosphere and emotion. 

Bringing these traditions into dialogue with British classical music is not about placing one above the other, but creating a meeting place, allowing musicians to listen to one another and discovering what becomes possible in the space between them. And so the audience can travel through this music. In West Africa, life is based on rhythm, because we tell stories through music. The music itself is the story – the movement and the texture and the expression of the instrument – whether it's spoken word or not.

The idea is to bring the two worlds together. What we’re showing is that we can live freely in the same place while walking in different rhythms.

Nwando Ebizie, ‘For You, small in the embrace of untethered, unwinding possible futures’

Mixed ensemble, 2026

A calling, a dream, a blessing, a wish in three parts for our child and all future children. An interweaving of cultures, hopes and dreams. A celebration.

I write to you pregnant – with this piece, and with a child. The two births will intertwine. This is a collaborative piece – Rakhi, Sidiki and I (plus two tortoises, only one of them good) spent many hours talking about music, our pasts and our futures. I wanted to engage with Mandé culture and create something that made sense of that connection. I wanted to answer the incredible idea that is Manchester Collective, and write something for these musicians that felt as personal to them in this moment as it does to me in mine.

Constellating…

I am Igbo, Nigerian, British, West African. My first home in Igbo land is thousands of miles away from Sidiki’s home in Côte d'Ivoire. To put it into context, it's roughly the same driving distance as London to Syria. Think of how many cultures lie in-between, and that’s comparable to the cultural distance between my homeland and Sidiki’s.

And yet in the West, there's a habit of talking about Africa as though it were a single country, of speaking of 'African music' as one thing. Flattening the breadth and depth. And yet, and yet and yet…

There are connections too.

People far more versed in Igbo music than I am, could speak to the similarities between a particular rhythm in Igbo culture and Mandinka, or the skin of a talking drum, and how close (or not) it is to a Sabar drum. I can only grasp at these constellations, and through processes like this one, keep crawling towards understanding.

My practice over the last 20 years has been grounded in exploring the ritual cultures of the Black Atlantic – that connected geo-mythic space between the coast of West Africa, the Caribbean and the Americas, sewn together by enslaved and native Africans whose cultures enriched the New World. The research has always been practical, beginning with dances and ceremonies and leading, in time, towards the thousands of unique rhythms and the meanings held within them. It has taken me from working with Candomblé practitioners in north-east Brazil to Haitian dancers and Cuban drummers. But ironically, the gap in all of this has always been the West African connection itself. Which is to say: this invitation meant more to me than I can easily explain.

I have always wanted to learn more about the Mandinka empire, so to be able to sit at the feet of a griot and hear a small part of his history, culture and practices – both verbally and through the djembe – has been an amazing experience. 

Every instrument carries a meaning, every rhythm carries a meaning, every song carries a meaning. I wanted to gain even a small understanding of each of these things in order to build this piece.

The explanations of Mandé music and practice that follow are gratefully gleaned from Sidiki, filtered through my own lens.

1. ‘CALLING TO THE FOUR SPIRITS OF THE DRUM – SONG FOR NUMU’

Feat. original music by Sidiki Dembélé

To open any piece of music we must first Call to the four spirits of the Drum. Those whose spirits we have to thank for this music (and music is a message to the future). So this is a song for the spirit of the wood of the Djembe (Iroko); for the goat whose hide forms the skin of the Djembe; the spirit of the Numu (Blacksmith) who one day in the past, went into the forest and searched for this very tree that spoke to him with Djembe Kan, the voice of the tree; and finally, for the spirit of the player. Through him all three spirits of the past are channelled. He is tasked with taking these lives, protecting, sharing and imbuing them with his own energy. A sacred, otherworldly task, he carries the mantle for the community.

Led and taught by Sidiki, this particular rhythm is called Numu Foly and honours the Numu. I am guessing that we often do not think about the forests, the trees, the mycelium networks that work as a collective and go into making our instruments. Or the instrument makers. Or the guts and the hair of the animals. I want to cast backwards to the past where they lived and forwards to future songs they will sing. This song is a tribute to all that goes into making this music.

Bringing into being
Surfacing
We are one
Thrumming
Thrumming
Join us
Feel the earth groan
Feel the earth
Connected
The water rising through us, the power - spread out arms and bursting budding leaves
To protect, to empower, to surround
Pour over us!
Pour over us!

I rise with the streaming light
And feel what will fall across my eyes today
Wet earth - I step - lifted by loam
I run my fingers over the ridges of time, tracing future melodies

I knew you once before
We danced in a dream
You sing new stories into being
New self, carved from old
New dreams sung into being
We must learn your song
It thrums in the air
Illuminate our dances

I am small in the embrace of untethered, unwinding, possible futures
I knew you once before
We danced in a dream
You sing new stories into being
New self carved from old

2. ‘I FALL IN LOVE WITH YOU AS YOU CLAIM ME’

Feat. original music by Sidiki Dembélé

We gathered together – Rakhi, Sidiki and me. I wanted to find out more about them as musicians: “What led you down this path?” I listened to them as they spoke of the music and drama in their stories.

Sidiki told me a story about how music was his destiny, how it called to him with its life-changing possibility. About the pivotal function of music to the community – music as true medicine. Music can save lives. About how certain rhythms are a question and the listener can naturally respond in spoken words. How music is speaking truth into the future for future generations to come. 

We talked about this concert and Rakhi’s hopes for the constellating of musical ideas across time and space. She wanted something joyful in these connections.

It is not a simple joy; there is a weight to being handed a destiny as a child. A meaning and a path given to you before you can comprehend it. There is a duty and from it, they as musicians have formed their own interweaving devotional practices.

The rhythm for this movement is the traditional Fankani call, taught and led by Sidiki.  Fankani is a welcoming rhythm.

i) Poem for Sidiki

ii) Poem for Musicians

I never actually chose it
I just grew up with an instrument in my hand
It was passed down
Is this what I want? It is part of me
It chose me, It chose me
It is not duty
Devotion devotion!
I fall in love with you as you claim me

There had to be some more out there, the constellation of musical worlds
You chose me
Now it is my voice, now it is my voice

I never actually chose it
I just grew up with an instrument in my hand, it was passed down
I fall in love with you as you claim me

3. ‘FOR YOU (AN UNFINISHED CODA)’

The night after I talked with Rakhi and Sidiki, I had a dream that seemed to tell of certain symbols and portents. In the morning I began to write the poetry and the music for this piece.

I don’t know who is going to be born. I do not wish a destiny on them, whilst knowing that with my every action and desire, I form a part of their future. I just hope that they carry their destiny lightly.

In you, the one tree that began this journey
And has brought us here
Lays the potential for the whole forest

In you the one child for whom we sing this song,
Lays the potential for the whole community.
Carry this Destiny like a silken cloth, like a puff of smoke,
Like a tremolo 
Diaphanous sound
Melting on contact with the nearest ear
Like scent on the breeze.
Like an invisible cloak to fly across ravines and over mountain tops

For you, small in the embrace of untethered,
Unwinding,
Possible Futures