Reviews

Sunday sees a rather fitting trip to the newly refurbished Victoria Baths in the rain to see Sirens, a performance by artist and composer Ray Lee. Although not the most conventional musical act on in the festival, Sirens certainly is a mesmerising experience, involving the use of loudspeakers which emit continuous tones whilst rotating on spinning arms which are mounted on 29 metal tripods, some up to 10 feet high.

Lee hops around switching them one by one until a chorus of tones fills the auditorium. Both impressive and faintly eerie by turn, this is a performance which manages to transform the cold austerity of the baths into a magnificent sonic cathedral and proves to be an excellent close to the festival.

And so the weekend ends, leaving a lot of people with sore feet, bruised eardrums and some fantastic memories. Futuresonic is rapidly becoming one of the key events in Manchester’s social calendar, and almost certainly a “had-to-be-there” experience for both Mancunians and out-of-towers alike.

See you next year? Definitely.

• Previous