10 new compositions combining unexpected instruments and styles, created by talented musicians and sound producers from Ukraine and the UK. 

Over one month participants collaborated in international groups, developing songs from initial concept to fully produced and mixed tracks. Within this diverse mix of compositions, immerse yourself in songs inspired by Japanese mythology, multi-layered dreams, phantasmagoric dialogues with your inner voice and more.

She Makes Music aims to encourage and support women in the independent music market (musicians, producers, music managers) from Ukraine and the UK through online workshops on music management, marketing and music production and open webinars on copyright and gender issues in music.

She Makes Music is a partnership project between Unbeaten Path and the education program Music Up (Ukraine) and Brighter Sound (UK). The project is realised within the programme “Culture for Changes” with support from Ukrainian Cultural Foundation and British Council.

She Makes Music

Press play on the music from A Week With PINS ▶️

Our first in-person music project since the pandemic, A Week With PINS brought together 15 talented young musicians from across the North West to work with the band PINS.

Over 5 days in July 2021, together they learnt about the band’s artistic process – from initial ideas to onstage transformation – and wrote and recorded an EP of new songs. On the final day they performed them live with PINS at award-winning music venue The Met in Bury.

More at www.brightersound.com/a-week-with-pins/

A huge thanks to the artists:
Ambrose, Benedicte, Bradley, Etienne, Imi, K.Czupkowski, Lala, Maddie, Maisie, Matt, Mia, Oliver, Sam, Sonny and Trees.R.Good.

And big thanks to PINS and our workshop leaders:
Faith, Lois, Kyoko, Ailis and Abbi (PINS), Elisa (PINS’ manager), Mary (Ninja Tune/Just Isn’t Music) and Rachel (Counselling for Musicians).

Shout out to Edwin Street Recording Studio for recording, mixing and mastering the music.

Photo by Rachel Bywater.

A Week With PINS was supported by The Met, Manchester City Council, GMCA and Youth Music as part of the Alliance for a Musically Inclusive England which is made possible by funding from the National Lottery via Arts Council England.

A Week With PINS

A selection of sounds from the projects and events we've been part of over the years. Feast your ears!

Brighter Sound Selects

The DISRUPT residency brought together 11 of the North West's most exciting young artists to create brand new music based around themes of protest, to link into the 200th anniversary of the Peterloo Massacre. Over 4 days the artists worked together to create five original tracks using Peterloo, and their own experiences of protest, as inspiration.

All music written and performed by:
Asriel, Cave Man, DAYZY, Emily Kiely, Kin Louie, Leroy Lucid, Olivia May, Queen Tamika, Sarah Angel, SWEETS, Teddy

With artistic guidance from:
Balraj Samrai
Lady Ice
MC Fox
Ruby-Ann Patterson

Produced and delivered by Brighter Sound at People's History Museum from 7-11 July 2019.

DISRUPT

Produced by Corrie & HazHat
Rap by HazHat

Remote Hope is a collective of eclectic young musicians from across Greater Manchester.

A meeting of like-minded individuals brought together over a six-week collaboration hosted by Brighter Sound in partnership with the Prince’s Trust.

Working together remotely, we’ve teamed up to produce a diverse body of new sounds, weaving together our different musical backgrounds and influences.

Showdown

Written, produced and performed by Avital Raz (Sheffield, UK), Ira Lobanok (Lviv, Ukraine), Laetitia Alexandros (Manchester, UK), Nyree Waters (Wales, United Kingdom), Roz Yuen(Berlin, Germany).

Created in 48 hours following a Both Sides Now x BandLab workshop. Part of Brighter Sound's Let's Reconnect Festival - a 4 day celebration of new music, creativity and collaboration.

“The process of diving from a quite informal discussion about ‘contrasts, space & time’ to a real musical and collective mindset to produce a track in less than 48h with an online software we barely knew (i.e. BandLab) enabled us to grow as creatives and develop not only our sound, but also our time management, adaptability and resilience as a collective. 

We thank Brighter Sound for their workshops, guidance and trust in empowering us as cis/trans-women, non-binary and women-aligned artists as well as providing a safe space for building relationships that will last.” Avital, Ira, Laetitia, Nyree and Roz

Lyrics

[verse 1]

Day turns to night,
slowly it comes like the tide,
washing over my mind.

A deepening blue,
I welcome the moon.
There's only us two
at this time.

[chorus]

I've been dreaming 
with my eyes
open wide.
I've been dreaming, eyes wide.

[verse 2]

Night turns to day 
everything seems to change,
the darkness it fades.

I know that you're far,
what's it like where you are?
Is it already dark?

[Bridge] 
Tot le matin, de la je commence mon periple,            
A mes periles, je veux peindre de mots,                    
Des sentiments indescriptibles                                   

Separees des autres                                                              
Par des hautes haies de haine et de chagrin            
C’est par ces mots que je parseme                       
Mes graines d’amour et d’eteindre                         

N’oublions jamais notre essence mere                 
D’etre et d’agir pour etre                                        
Libre.                                                                     

[Translation]
Early morning, from here I'm starting my journey
To my own risk, I want to paint words 
To describe feelings I can’t fathom

Separated from each other
By high hedges of hate and sorrow
It is through these words that I sow
my seeds of love and embrace

Never forget our core essence
to be and to act to be
Free.

[chorus]

I've been dreaming 
with my eyes
open wide.
I've been dreaming, eyes wide.

Twilight by Avital Raz, Ira Lobanok, Laetitia Alexandros (Trees.R.Good), Nyree Waters , Roz Yuen

Written, produced and performed by Niki Kand and Ira Lobanok.

Created in 48 hours following a Both Sides Now x BandLab workshop. Part of Brighter Sound's Let's Reconnect Festival - a 4 day celebration of new music, creativity and collaboration.

“These past 48 hours have been both exciting and very challenging! We wrote lyrics, sang, arranged, mixed and mastered the song produced from scratch and managed to overcome some of our fears along the way. Massive thanks to Brighter Sound for giving us the opportunity to bring our song “A Good Day” to life.” - Niki and Ira

Lyrics 

I'm feeling good , feeling calm in my head  
Meeting new friends, in zoom rooms made my day 

It was a good day, I liked it a lot 
So many good chats, was like what I thought  Met pretty ladies all nice so smart  
asked many questions, how why who and what 

Yeah one from Ukraine with hair blue 
One from Brussels one was Jew 
Aussie Asian well I'm too 
Aquilah talked us all through BandLab 

I'm feeling good, feeling calm in my head  
Meeting new friends, in zoom rooms made my day 

So we had 2 days to finish the song 
That’s 48 hours so we had to crack on 
Niki had a great start, she figured BandLab fine I had to keep up so we could meet a tight deadline
 
We chatted, recorded, arranged and we mixed We planned, and we fixed the bits that needed to be fixed We had such a great time working remote 
Thanks brighter sound for getting us onboard 

I'm feeling good, feeling calm in my head  
Meeting new friends, in zoom rooms made my day 

Good times, good thoughts on our minds 
Tell me what’s better than love in life?

A Good Day by Niki Kand and Ira Lobanok

“Turn It Up” is an international creative response from a team of four: Clare McNalty (UK), Iride Hasanova, Evheniya Klenova and Viktoriia Troianchuk (Ukraine). They had never met before, but were united by a common goal - musical creation. 

This song is an experiment with samples, rock strings, a warped whisper and the feedback of an omnichord mutated into a groove. 

“Turn It Up” is electronic experimental eclecticism fused with dark pop. It sounds like international indie, alternative analogue/digital music of the 90’s and the future. 

Credits:
Clare McNulty - Sound Production, Synths, Keys 
Iride Hasanova (IRIDE) - Vocals, Lyrics
Evheniya Klenova (KLENOVA) - Sound Production
Viktoriia Troianchuk (Tori Tram) - Guitar
Ivanna Oliinyk - Manager
Mixing/Mastering: Yuriy Bulychev

Turn It Up

This Ukrainian-British creative team presents a synth pop single "Dream Flight". The song is dreamy, sophisticated and light. Are you ready to fly in dreams and in reality?

Credits:
Music - Anastasiia Kyslynska, Ola Orlovska, Anna Fadieieva
Lyrics - Anna Fadieieva, Carla Duffy
Vocal - Ola Orlovska, Carla Duffy
Arrangement - Santuria (Anastasiia Kyslynska)
Mixing/Mastering: Yuriy Bulychev

Dream Flight

‘No flower blooms the whole year round. Have you ever seen a flower bloom in winter?”

This mixed genres song “Take It Slow” was created as a result of the collaboration of rock and classically trained musicians with an experimental electronic producer. 

The story starts with a long and epic indie vocal intro. Singing on endless processes in human lives in comparison with some very natural processes on the Earth, the song turns to a deep-diving atmosphere sounding more like trip-hop with a minimal beat, flying transcendent pads, chords and huge bass.

So. Take it slow. Trust the process and enjoy listening with your subconscious. 

Credits: 

Emily Mercer - Lyrics, Vocals, Keys 
Oksana Kogut - Vocals, Guitar, Keys 
Anna Heller - Vocals, Synths, Bass, Sound Production & Design
Mixing/Mastering: Yuriy Bulychev

Take It Slow

This cooperation has really turned out to be a joint project. Despite the different obstacles, everyone was still able to fully include their souls in the creative process and convey what they really care about right now. The disconnection created by the pandemic has not been able to interrupt the artists music.

Credits:
Ideological brainstorm - Carolyne Oakley, Ola Orlovska, Iryna Muha, Rey
Piano/Lyrics - Ola Orlovska
Folk parts - Iryna Muha 
Bass/Production - Rey (Anastssiya Simonovich) 
Management - Alevtina Chabanenko 
Mixing/Mastering: Yuriy Bulychev

Interrupted

"Zozulya" is a song created as a result of collaboration between Ukrainian and British participants. That's why the artists decided to combine Ukrainian folklore with English lyrics, and add modern electronic music.

Cuckoo in Ukrainian culture is a symbol of sorrow and widowhood, longing for life and the past; a harbinger of spring, long life and at the same time death, misfortune.

The song tells the story of a girl who fell in love with a married man. Cuckoo flew in her house and began to forge, a warning of trouble. At the same time, the first tapes in English encourage you to find your own way and not give up.

Credits:
Lyrics  — Clare McNulty and lyrics from a Ukrainian folk song
Music — Cheesorable, Masha Petrovska
Music production — Cheesorable
Mixing/Mastering: Yuriy Bulychev

Zozulya

"Flow" was born through a collaboration between two Ukrainian music artists - Iride who's originally from Kerch and Anastasiia who comes from Donetsk. The girls met in a pretty similar phase of big changes in their lives, so they were on the same wave and quickly came up with an idea for this song.

The process was easy, despite the fact that the girls had never seen each other before and had no experience of online collaboration. In the process of exchanging ideas, they caught the same flow that is described in the song.

"We wanted to create a song that would be close and understandable to everyone. So I got the idea for the lyrics from a simple process — swimming. 'Cause in life, as well as in water, you should always go with the flow", says Iride. 

Powerful, clean and sensual vocals are combined with moody but catchy electronic music which make you dissolve in the track.

Credits:
Lyrics and vocals — Iride Hasanova
Music — Anastasiia Kyslynska, Iride Hasanova
Music production — Anastasiia Kyslynska
Mixing/Mastering: Yuriy Bulychev

Flow

Forest the new Single by Ukrainian and Irish collective 'Common Language' dives into a narrative of struggles, adversity and finding light at the end of a persons metaphorical dark forest. Blending instrumentation and melody that flits between light and dark moods, high energy rhythms and melancholy vocals with brooding lyricism; Forest will be lapped up by fans of Alternative Pop and Indietronica in the vein of Woodkid, Radiohead and Billie Eilish. Forest promises to take the listener on an epic, dream-like journey.

Credits:
Lyrics and vocals — Pixi Ink
Music — Tori Tram
Music production — Anna Shchybryk
Manager - Maria Vynarska
Mixing/Mastering: Yuriy Bulychev

Forest

This song is a dark fairytale inspired by Japanese mythology and the cyber spirit of “Love, Death & Robots”. Emotional. Magical. Experimental.

Credits:
Music and arrangement – Kristina Fedorniak
Lyrics – Elle Alicia Bennet, Anna Fadieieva
Vocal – Elle Alicia Bennet
Idea – Anna Fadieieva 
Mixing/Mastering: Yuriy Bulychev

Kitsune

Welcome to the audio version of All Things Equal - A Manifesto for Gender Equality in Music, read by Princess Arinola Adegbite.

For more information visit https://www.allthingsequal.co/

Contents:

Welcome 0.00
A Statement on Intersectionality 1.31
Background and Context 3.26
Summary 5.55
Education 6.52
Talent Development 8.16
Live Music 9.40
Parents and Carers 11.25
Leadership 12.59
What's Next 14.17
Be Part of the Change 15.41

Princess Arinola Adegbite (or Bitez) is a writer, spoken word poet, musician, actress, and filmmaker from Manchester. She is a winner of Slambassadors, BBC Words First 2020, One Mic Stand 2021, Common Word Going Digital, and Manchester Creative of The Year 2021. She is an active member of Young Identity and an artist on the Level Up program. Bitez has been commissioned by Manchester International Festival, Selfridges, BBC, Ripples of Hope Festival, and many more.

Brighter Sound Presents - All Things Equal Manifesto

Did You Really Like It

Without You

Transformation

Press play on the music from this 5-day studio residency - boundless in sound and style.

Over five days in July 2022 the group worked with Manchester collective Honeyfeet to write and record new music.

Using the concept of Truth to Tape, with just their instruments and interests to use as inspiration, the group ended the week with six new tunes! This is one of them.

Find out more at https://www.brightersound.com/the-feed/truth-to-tape-with-honeyfeet/

A huge round of applause for the musicians: Anreé, Eleanor, Isaac, Jenni, Lala, Louis, Samuella and Will.

Photo by Ingrid Turner.

Truth to Tape

Voices

The Change

Ordinary Grunk

Letting Go

Allergy

Graphene's Theme - From Graphene Suite

Did You Really Like It - From A Week With PINS

Marble by Frink Frink and Imogen Heap

Foreigner - From DISRUPT

Life Like Kryptonite - From Remote Hope

Boy - From A Week With PINS

Man and a Brother - From DISRUPT

All Things Equal by Loraine James with spoken word by Princess Arinola Adegbite (Bitez)

Bug - From A Week With PINS

Press play on the music from this 5-day studio residency - boundless in sound and style.

Over five days in July 2022 the group worked with Manchester collective Honeyfeet to write and record new music.

Here, the Truth to Tape team go behind the scenes with track by track commentary about how the songs were made and what inspired them.

More at https://www.brightersound.com/the-feed/truth-to-tape-with-honeyfeet-music/

A huge round of applause for the musicians: Anreé, Eleanor, Isaac, Jenni, Lala, Louis, Samuella and Will.

Photo by Ingrid Turner.

Voices (Track by Track Commentary)

The Change (Track by Track Commentary)

Ordinary Grunk (Track by Track Commentary)

Letting Go (Track by Track Commentary)

Across 2025 we collaborated with Rochdale Connections Trust to deliver music-making workshops in the area for young people engaged with the Trust.

Over three months we met with young people aged 13-18 to help them create original new music inspired by things they were passionate about. One of these songs, The Station, particularly shone out and in August we took a group of the young people to VoltaLab to get the track professionally recorded, mixed and mastered.

Find out more at https://www.brightersound.com/the-feed/the-station-voltalab/

The Station (VoltaLab Session)

A group of 46 young musicians were left speechless on 11 March when seven times Grammy Award winner Kendrick Lamar walked into a Brighter Sound hip hop workshop and joined them in a freestyle MC jam.

I Live Hip Hop with Kendrick Lamar

Close your eyes…take a slow deep breath in…focus on all the sounds within the space…

Listen…

The live recording from our second Both Sides Now residency which saw a lineup of emerging artists explore left-field composition and the interactions between time, space and sound, directed by experimental classical composer and turntablist, Shiva Feshareki.

This residency was the second as part of Both Sides Now, our new ambitious three-year initiative to support and sustain gender equality across the landscape of music.

Thanks to Shiva Feshareki and the residency artists:
Abigail Seto, Avital Raz, Charlotte Bickley (CARLOS), Charlotte Cuningham, Cheak Nee Liau, Elizabeth Walshaw, Fran Bundey, Grace Stubbings, Jemma Freese, Lara Jones, Loraine James, Marlo DeLara, Megan Lama, Nicole Raymond (NikNak) and Rebecca Burden.

Produced and delivered by Brighter Sound. Recorded live at Leeds College of Music on Monday 12 March 2018 as the opener for Sounds Like THIS Festival.

Both Sides Now: Shiva Feshareki

The live recordings from the Music at the Museum residency for young and emerging musicians which saw 15 musicians from across Greater Manchester create new music inspired by the collections within the Manchester Museum. Created under the artistic guidance of award-winning artists John Barber and James Redwood from the band Firefly Burning.

Thanks to Firefly Burning and the residency artists:
Adee Lifshitz, Andy Adams, Anna Korbel, Arthur Hutchinson, Billy Graham, Bonnie Schwartz, Eddie McAlpine, George Garside, Georgia Gage, Kieran Murphy, Maisie Murray, Molly Sunderland, Nadia Eskandari, Pete Shaw and Sam Baxter.

Produced and delivered by Brighter Sound. Recorded live at the Manchester Museum on Thursday 12 July 2018.

Music at the Museum

Living Worlds

Mothsong

Cosmic Rift

This July we were thrilled to run an exciting new residency exploring themes of protest, resistance and liberation to link into the 200th anniversary of the Peterloo Massacre.

DISRUPT brought together some of Manchester’s most exciting artists to create brand new music, using Peterloo and their own personal experiences of protest as inspiration.

Thanks to the lead artists – Swing Ting’s co-founder Balraj Samrai, MC Fox, rapper Lady Ice and Ruby-Ann Patterson (Family Ranks)– and the residency artists:
Asriel, CaveManM8, DAYZY, Emily Kiely, Kin Louie, Leroy Lucid, Olivia May, Queen Tamika, Sarah Angel, SWEETS, Teddy

Produced and delivered by Brighter Sound at People's History Museum from 7-11 July.

So Low

Senegal Chant

Man And A Brother (Acoustic)

Man And A Brother

Foreigner

We support young creatives, emerging artists and up-and-coming music professionals to find their rhythm. Rooted in Manchester, open to the world. We equalise opportunity and make change happen.

Brighter Sound

Pinned to spotlight

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