SPACE AFRIKA & THE IMPETUS OF THE CITY

With their roots solidly formed in Manchester, the city has provided a fertile foundation for the creative spirit and vision of the project. Often overlooked in favour of the metropolitan sprawl of London, the North of England’s post-industrial towns have a time-honoured legacy of providing a backdrop to the UK’s most exciting and progressive music. Having grown up together in the English city, Inyang and Reid’s shared experiences have formed the basis on which their collaborative project is built, providing inspiration for the sound and visuals of the project, with the Rainy City also offering the environment for their greater network of collaborators to flourish. No longer both living in Manchester – Reid now splits his time between Paris and Berlin – Space Afrika’s connection to place has been altered, with the city remaining a prominent fixture in their united artistic vision, albeit partially filtered through the haze of memory and reflection.

Transcending sonic pigeonholing with an ever-expanding cast of collaborators, the duo has carved an inventive path through the contemporary electronic music landscape, achieving acclaim for their nuanced style and chameleonic personality. Shifting from their early dub techno productions on 2018’s Somewhere Decent To Live, to contemporary ambient and trip hop with 2021’s seminal album Honest Labour, their recent collaborative LP with Preston’s Rainy Miller, A Grisaille Wedding, too, saw the duo continue to examine their shared musical histories, developing the experimental continuum further to incorporate UK rap and hip-hop influences more overtly. Shifting between various modes of audio storytelling, the Space Afrika’s distinctive sound palette has developed throughout its ten years of existence, offering a malleable perspective that doesn’t shirk away from incorporating influences from seemingly disparate sources. Cultivating an atmosphere and vision that is haunting and often unsparingly beautiful, the duo’s aural identity displays a certain vulnerability and intimacy that underpins their work, reflective of the social, political and experiential climate we currently live in, building a narrative of the modern world and expounding the stories that have inspired it.

Sitting down with the duo at their studio space on the outskirts of Manchester, we discussed the influence of place on their music, expressing vulnerability as an artist, and the ever-expanding scope of the Space Afrika project.

Despite being partially based in Paris & Berlin, Manchester continues to be a prevalent source of inspiration for your musical output. How has Manchester shaped your sound aesthetic and outlook on experimental electronic music on the whole? Has the city’s own cultural legacy informed your own approach in any way?

Joshua Reid: We have a rich history of artists that have come before us, as well as artists that we’ve worked with in DIY spaces, collectives and communities. I think that moving away, or being away from the city, you still carry that DIY ethos with you even when you’re in a different location. What’s interesting with the city is that because of its creativity, there’s an interesting feedback loop where you become influenced, but you also influence at the same time. Those that come before us and those that come after us actually end up enforcing our sound, somehow helping it to continue, evolve and move into different directions. Being in a city in the North of England, there’s also a definite underdog spirit, which makes you push on and push further. It ends up enforcing community led projects more, which helps with collaboration and working between different mediums. I think it’s something that you carry with you as a stronger identity. It’s not just in Manchester, but it can be an essence of second or third cities to capital cities, where that kind of community ethos is strong, in terms of collaboration and bridging the gaps between people. It’s in the DNA.

The North of England continues to sit at this strange juncture where on one hand, it is memorialised in the past, but the present is often overlooked, underfunded, or altogether ignored. Growing up in the North and getting involved in making music, did you find that you had to work harder in order to get the recognition that your rightfully deserved?

Joshua Inyang: One thing that we noticed growing up in Manchester and working in the city, is that, having this legacy and these movements that are always held onto for a certain time, it’s important to acknowledge that, but also to work out your own way to move, interact, collaborate, and push yourself as an individual, as an artist and as a brand. That’s what we did. We just lent into our own character and taste, and we got to a point where we really trusted that. Being able to bounce off each other and navigate the space and a new way to push and propose our own music. That’s how we ended up where we are.

JR: In terms of the creative spirit and the energy, there’s a strong, nostalgic element to Manchester and the North in general. As an artist, you sometimes find yourself stuck between these two dichotomies – one which is nostalgic, and one that is hauntological. You’re trying to acknowledge what has happened before you, while also placing credence on what is currently happening now, not being pigeonholed by what’s happened before you. It’s a constant battle to try and transcend that. With second cities and third cities, because of the community, you’re constantly collaborating with people from different genres, different backgrounds, so you’re taking a little bit of input from each other to use in your own project, which can move it into different directions then.

Why do you think the city is such a fertile environment for electronic music, with artists like Iceboy Violet, Rat Heart, Clemency, RenzNiro, and BFTT, to name a few, continuing to put the city on the map in the modern era?

JI: It’s always been a fertile place for electronic music. Over the last few years, as artists have started to assert themselves, develop their ideas, and their sounds have evolved into something fresher, the attention and the light has been shone on the city, meaning that people are finally catching up now. More people are finding the confidence to find and use their voice. It feels a bit like a coming-of-age thing, really. Community is a massive part of that in Manchester, we all lean into each other to support ourselves on some sort of level. Having that kind of infrastructure makes it easier to go for it, really.

Following up on Honest Labour with your collaborative LP A Grisaille Wedding with Rainy Miller last year, your sound palette has continued to expand, exploring the experimental continuum while still maintaining this devotion to displaying a cathartic emotional experience that reflects contemporary life in the UK. What is it that particularly drives the conceptual element to your music? Why do you think your sound palette is so well suited to reflecting this part of modern life?

JI: We’ve always had a conceptual approach to what we do. When it comes to Space Afrika, it’s never had a singular perspective. We’ve never looked at it in the sense that we only make this one kind of music. There’s always been these pre-determined themes, with a certain background, or mood board for a project that shows what has influenced us, what the elements are that make up this picture. We draw on that, whether it’s the art, whether it’s the inspiration, the clothing that we’re wearing, the time of day or night, or the people we’re around. There are so many other elements that we take as seriously as the actual musicality that plays into it. Outside of music, we’ve had other careers and passions, and I’d like to think that in those experiences we’re quite analytical in the way we approach things. In turn, that guides the way that we approach music. In terms of having this expanded palette, we’ve always seen room for our music to grow. As much as we’re more commonly associated with particular genres like ambient or trip-hop, our actual palette from birth is so broad. So, it feels like there is always a piece of the puzzle, in terms of music and the picture and the inspirations, for us to find at some point. Those different inspirations will reveal themselves as we mature or as we go through certain situations in our lives. We take all of those things as the ingredients to produce the final product or picture that we’re trying to create.

JR: From the beginning of the project, we always used to conceptualise ideas before we went and did them. Initially, we were just trying to create a space for ourselves to exist in, because we’d traversed through so many different kinds of scenes as we were coming of age and trying to find our feet as young people. We got involved in lots of different kinds of music, whether it was drum’n’bass or jungle, techno, ambient, dub techno and the music that we grew up with from our parents. We started the project because we couldn’t see ourselves in the spaces that we were going to. This idea of concept creation, of building an alternative world, was always integral to starting the project. Building that world became referential of the immediate surroundings that we were in, and the experience from speaking to our parents, our family, to people that look like us, so we wanted to try to capture the essence of that experience and use that as the driving force of the project. As time has gone on, we’ve learnt and brought people along with us, who have those same experiences, who can share their own stories but also, we’ve been inspired by hearing people who’ve had similar experiences and stories as well. It’s super integral for the project to always have this conceptual basis, as it’s important for us to then move past just music and move into other fields and disciplines with the project.

In your music, there is this balance between the synthetic and the human, with produced sounds merging and blending with field recordings and samples, often delivered verbatim or with minimal post-production, tying your tracks to place more overtly with references to the Manchester riots and discussions about housing projects, for example. What is this juxtaposition between the human and the manmade designed to reflect?

JI: We’ve been lucky to have been born into a time where we have access to all of these tools, and they’re equally as important as each other. For us, from the conceptual angle, there’s no limit or rule as to what is used to create a piece of art. We take a liking to more left-field, and maybe rawer, approaches to producing sound. First and foremost, we like to produce sound – that can be instrumental, that could be voice – but producing in an unorthodox way feels good for us. It feels like it’s a quicker path to producing something more original. It’s important to then have the balance of both the human and the manmade, because the human voice, for example, is such a special tool that we use for communication and creation, so it’s the perfect instrument to experiment with tones, context, and delivery. Vice versa, using instruments in a certain way that gives them a more human feel. Basically, any approach that makes sense to us, and we’re able to get some sort of output from, is going to be a method that we consider worthy and exciting for us to work with.

There is a real vulnerability to your work that I think everything is filtered through, whether that is in a more subdued piece like “Honest Labour” with HforSpirit or a higher energy track like “00-Down / Murmansk, 12”. What drives your desire to exhibit your vulnerability as artists? Do you find that channelling this vulnerability into your music give you peace of mind on certain issues in your life?

JI: I don’t think it’s possible to be an artist without being vulnerable. Quite often, we’re digging into areas of ourselves that we might not otherwise be able to reach without this form of expression. That’s very much who and what we are day to day. We live and work quite honestly. For us, making music is a passion but it’s also a form of reflection, it’s a cathartic process. It feels quite normal for us to be shedding our experiences, feelings, and emotions, in that form. It’s a communication tool for us.

JR: It’s definitely a communication tool. You grew up in a society, and maybe you’re told to not express certain ideas, and these things can come out in different ways. It could be rage, it could be violence, happiness, any form of emotionality. The beauty of creating music is having the option to express those feelings without implicitly saying it. You can enforce it through production, sampling, or synthesis. You can find these different methods of expressing what it is you’re trying to say without being as overt as directly saying it. It was important that when we started the project that we didn’t reveal too much, but as we went deeper into the process of working and making, it became much more cathartic, especially in a live context where you’re presenting those ideas in a public facing way. We always aim to go as deep as we can go into our emotions, as we’re carrying our own personal emotions, but we’re also carrying the emotions of our community and our families. It’s an opportunity for us to share those feelings that they didn’t get to say or those stories that they didn’t get to tell themselves. That process is super important to informing the project, so the vulnerability side of it absolutely has to come through. 

Your music has a distinctive emotional charge to it, often referencing specific cultural reference points, whether political or social, that offer a sensibility that echoes the current climate of the world. How does your compositional practice reflect this approach? Considering you are located in different parts of the world, does this impact your outlook when you’re composing as a duo who are living in cities with their own specific cultural attitudes, nuances and experiences?

JR: I think it has a huge impact. Not even just as it’s a different location itself, but Josh and I have been on tour for quite some time now. Sometimes you’re entering spaces, countries or cities, for the first time. You’ve never been there, and you don’t quite know what to expect, but you’re then liberated by the fact that there might be a kid there who really understands what you’re saying emotionally. You don’t make those connections when you’re in one place. When you meet that person who understands something inherently on a deeper level, and maybe their story isn’t exactly related to what we’re saying, but they’re taking something from it that is special to them. That’s so beautiful. Those experiences somehow do influence what you create when you go back, because you start to think of things in a broader perspective and start to address more themes that become bigger than the community or the roots that you yourself might have. Being away from Manchester, you kind of have a feedback loop where you’re always reflecting back on your upbringing, on where you came from. When you’re looking at it from a distance, and you analyse it, come back, reinforce it, then change. Ultimately, no matter where you go, the impetus of the city is always there, and it’s always going to reinforce those ideas first, because that’s where the most time has been spent.

JI: That’s the beauty of it. You can go to the other side of the world, and you’ll come into contact with someone with a similar or a shared experience. We define our experience by our location, but someone on the other side of the globe might be experiencing the same thing.

Working with French publishing house Kermesse, you’ve branched out with a book of prints titled MONO and the limited run of art piece “YOBS” – it’s clear that the scope of Space Afrika as a creative endeavour expands beyond music. What dictates the medium that you work in for a specific project?

JI: We’ve always had an open mind to our work. We’re self-taught, so we like to throw ourselves fully into something. We’ve had a strong history with photography, art, architecture, and industrialism. The music was the leading practice that we’ve thrown ourselves into, and we’ve somehow managed to build something from that, but there has always been this other interest to move into other forms of art and media. The opportunities have then presented themselves as we’ve had more experiences, collaborated and networked with people, been able to share these ideas and they’ve then presented the platform for us actually make it happen. Kermesse was an exact example of that, where they helped us actualise these ideas. In the process of us producing our own music, and our own visuals for when we’re touring, and also working with visual artists and filmmakers like Tibyan Sanoh, you start to understand how these different mediums overlap. We delved into producing our own tour visuals and being behind the lens, and understanding how we then appear behind the lens, building stages. It’s a snowball effect, so it builds your confidence that you can produce work outside of a singular format, and we’ve just gone for it. I do see the scope of Space Afrika continuing to expand, as I don’t see limits on what we want to do as a project.

We’ve been working in and around installation for the past two years, now. This year, going forward, we’ve started to take the reins on that a lot more, developing these ideas from scratch and presenting these ideas to galleries, or curators. More gallery work, installation work. We’re currently scoring short films and documentaries, and definitely see that expanding to feature length films. Film production is also something that we’re interested in, and we want to step into the ring with that. Developing the stories that we want to bring to life in big way. 

JR: From the start of the project there was always a strong visual identity, even from the artwork of the very first release on cassette. In some respects, when we look back at the artwork for that first release and compare it to this new project we’re working on, there’s so many similarities between them. Whenever we have an experience, that could be a sonic or a visual one, all of those additional elements can be added to enforce the full experience. What’s important with the visual identity is that someone can come to see a live set or listen to the music, and they can then see where the music has come from. If someone says that “Honest Labour” sounds like walking around the streets at night, it’s trying to create something that reflects that. What does that street look like? What is the direct experience of being with this music? It’s always been super important for us to have this outlook where we can express visual identity. So, you’re going to see a lot more of that work coming up. This is just the beginning.

Throughout your past few records and live performances, collaboration often crops up as something that is present in your creative approach – the list of artists you’ve collaborated with is varied and spans many different genres. What does the creative experience of collaboration offer your vision from a conceptual standpoint? 

JI: There are several different faces to the importance of collaboration for us, and in general. Yes, we’re naturally a duo, but we’ve felt very individual in our path compared to any sort of scenes or movements within electronic music. Before getting to a point where we were collaborating more openly, and bringing other artists in, we’d done two or three career defining projects that were just myself and Josh. One of the faces of it is that we’re learning to open up our work and ourselves. It can be difficult to work with other people, whether they’re friends, family or other artists, so it was having this openness and trust to share our work with other people and in that, you realise that there is so much that people can bring, whether it’s a perspective, or a sound, or an idea. It’s a very healthy thing in itself to collaborate. Another face of it is that we’re on this path alone – we’ve built something and established something. Looking back along the years, there are definitely some key and pivotal people who have presented or guided opportunities to us. We always look back, and with younger artists like RenzNiro, it's nice when you see this innate passion and talent, and it’s deserving of a platform. It’s not only deserving of a platform, but there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be sharing the same platform that you have. It’s important to continually think about and build the community aspect of what can come from collaboration. The third face of it is that we are constantly, and always will be, inspired by other art and artists. One thing that is nice is that you meet these people, and you share stages with them. They maybe work in a completely different sound or medium, but both of you sharing this passion are coming to this clear canvas and creating something new is so freeing. As a creative and an artist, to be in a position where you are taking the pressure off yourself and you’re stepping aside of your own thing is very freeing. It’s a platform for you to create a lot more freely and faster.

JR: It’s also a window into someone else’s world. Sometimes it’s something that you might need help or support on, and someone else can offer a glimpse into their world and offer a new perspective. At the heart of all art is some form of collaboration, whether it’s music, or visual art, you need a team to help finish it off. Even if its mixing or mastering or the artwork, you’re always thinking of bringing someone else in. Why stop there? Why not open it up and see what works? A lot of my favourite work has been birthed because of collaboration, where people have come together from different worlds and brought in a new perspective to form something completely different. It’s integral to always consider it.

Having signed a publishing deal with Warp last year, and riding high with a number of critically acclaimed albums, what is on the horizon for Space Afrika?

JI: Right now, we’re definitely in a period of considered and greater expansion. We’re experimenting a lot with new sounds, new art forms, installation and film work. In general, expanding and putting time into creating outside of the medium of music. We’re also writing music again, towards a new project. Beyond that I don’t know what more I want to say!

JR: We’re excited, things are happening. We're going to get to tell the stories that we want to tell, in the way that we want to tell them. People who are involved with the project are really understanding the vision, so it’s super exciting.

Photographer: Timon Benson

Stylist: Alexander Luc

Gaffer: Callan Dooley

DOP: Paddy Gomulski

Assistant: Henry Collier