Release Date: 4th April 2011
Album launch gigs: Manchester – 4 April 2011 at Deaf Institute, London – 7th April 2011 at Union Chapel
“We have always been proud to be associated with MAK (Music Aid to Kosovo). Aside from the great work they do in Kosovo, they have brought together Manchester’s music community on many occasions. MAK events are always a document of the times”. – Guy Garvey, Elbow
Early in 2001, the release of Manchester Aid to Kosovo‘s compilation, ‘Cohesion’, gave many music fans outside of this rainy Northern city the first chance to hear the then little known group Elbow. The band donated the sublime ‘Scattered Black and Whites’, whilst other emerging Manchester legends, Doves gave the track ‘Valley’. In the intervening years both bands plus a host of other notable names included on that first album at the start of their careers (such as I Am Kloot, Badly Drawn Boy, Mr Scruff) have supported MAK in helping recovery from ethnic cleansing in the Balkans. Check out makonline.org for more information about the work of the charity.
10 years on and follow up compilation ‘ten‘ sees the now familiar voices of Guy Garvey and Jimi Goodwin surrounded by a new group of emerging Manchester artists. This 18 track album, curated by The Travelling Band‘s Jo Dudderidge, demonstrates how the poetic grandeur from the likes of Garvey, Goodwin, Frost et al has influenced a u-turn in the city’s musical output. Where the grey, overcoat of ‘dance–miserabilism’ h as been cast aside, not to reveal a post-Oasis hangover, but in fact a deep, warmly humorous and slyly experimental slew of artists intent on reclaiming the Manchester music scene for themselves.From the skittering, heart stopping afro-folk of Josephine Oniyama’s ‘Fun In The Dark’ through to the gorgeous slow-core balladry of The Travelling Band’s ‘Hindsight’, ‘ten’ is littered with countless gems, each a gateway to understanding how Manchester found a new voice for itself in the late 00’s.
Manchester Music has funded much of the work of MAK (approximately a third of its total income) enabling MAK to create the 22-acre Manchester Peace Park in N.E Kosovo at the request of children medically evacuated to Manchester. One of these children, Jehona Bogujevci, who survived the massacre of her family, went on to study graphics in Manchester and the artwork for ‘ten’ is Jehona’s first commission since her graduation.
MAK is involved in art, education, ecology, sport and human rights, as well as the Peace Park and music projects. The new republic of Kosovo remains the poorest country in Europe, and its young people lack the freedom to travel. So in 2009 ‘The Travelling Band’ became one of the first British bands to perform in Kosovo, playing at the Peace Park, in theatres, cafes, on the streets and even on horse drawn wagons, with the aim to inspire. Kosovo musicians around them to get out, go public and make it happen.
It’s hoped the album will both facilitate more projects and encourage creativity. MAK has proved that linking recovery and creativity creates strength, opportunity and of course, great music.
Check out Elbow‘s Some Riot (Live at Abbey Road), which appears on ‘ten‘ here:
To mark the release of ‘ten’, there are launch events in Manchester and London featuring, MAK Patron Badly Drawn Boy, Liam Frost and many other artists featured on the album:
Mon 4th April – Deaf Institute, Manchester –
tickets and line-up http://bit.ly/dSxCo6
Thurs 7th April – Union Chapel, London –
tickets and line-up http://bit.ly/en8fRq
CD and ticket bundles are available from http://www.makonline.org/ten
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