Emergence Collective creates beautiful, minimalist sound worlds that gradually unfold through improvised performance. With a revolving lineup and a vibrant mix of ancient and modern instruments, the ensemble unites some of the North’s most exciting improvisers in fresh and unexpected combinations. Drawing on shared backgrounds in experimental, folk, electronic, classical, and early music, they generate a hypnotic, otherworldly kaleidoscope of sound, completely unique to every live performance and shaped by the space in which it occurs.
"The sound moves like intricate threads being
spun into a giant loom" - The Wire
“Masters of improvisation” - Uncut Magazine, 8/10
Resonant Bodies - Sheffield duo Zebedee C. Budworth and Rob Bentall, also founding members of Emergence Collective and doom-folk ensemble Slug Milk - share their debut album St Augani, the first in a trilogy of releases. Out now on Redundant Span Records, Resonant Bodies' intertwining instrumentals are spontaneously improvised on the nyckelharpa and hammered dulcimer. St Augani seeks to reimagine the pair's medieval instruments, playfully blending the spacious and serene ("For Jacken") with stirring soundscapes ("Apparition in Situ"), pushing tradition into thrilling new territory. The pair recently accompanied award-winning writer Max Porter for his 2026 PEN Lecture.
"..there’s a contrasting sense of tentative exploration – nyckelharpa and hammered dulcimer probing and prodding until melodies take shape before your ears which then start to quicken and slow in lopsided leaps and bounds." - The Quietus
"a masterful balance and build that would put many a post-rock epic to shame." - KLOF
Join us…for an expansive, sticky-sweet evening of performance in celebration of CAKE -
As desire,
As nostalgia,
As hilarity, joy, fetish, and a vehicle for food justice.
Expect an unpredictable mix of drag, movement artists, improvised music, and of course... cake.
We have invited some of Sheffield's greatest composers, improvisers, movement artists and drag artists to celebrate the joy of cake - in a three-part narrative arc exploring desire, creation and gluttony.
Come for the mess, stay for the magic.
Directed by Lou Barnell and Zebedee C. Budworth