Manchester Collective: SERENITY 2.0

15 Mar 2025

The Tung Auditorium

A nervous system reset.

One minute, the sound vibrates through you, your hairs pulled on end. The next: a blissful calm descends. There’s furious amplified sound and then mysterious, holy light to slow the pulse back down…Ever felt overstimulated by your phone screen? Ben Nobuto’s SERENITY 2.0 is a glitched-out collage of frenzied strings, percussion and samples. It cycles restlessly through Japanese pop, news anchors and vocal-fried YouTubers – but the calm after the doomscrolling is worth the ride.

Musician and DJ Nabihah Iqbal has a similarly eclectic approach to art and music. Her work takes her everywhere, from Boiler Room raves to the Turner Prize. What Psyche Felt, Nabihah’s first classical commission for string quartet and electronics, will be given its world premiere by the Collective. The finale? Eric Prydz’s colossal house anthem Opus, reimagined.

What Psyche Felt is commissioned by Manchester Collective with support from their Commissioning Club.