Featured image and gallery: Georgina Hurdsfield

For the first time in seven years, globally renowned Sampha returns to Manchester. As the first date on his LAHAI tour, there’s a lot of buzz around this show. Brand new venue, Factory International at Aviva Studios, is the perfect setting for this, playing for the first time in the round. 

The venue has a wonderfully relaxed and accomplished vibe, with ample seating in the foyer. It’s a testament to what the future of arts and culture spaces can hold. Upon entering the venue, you’re greeted with a vast air conditioned space, surrounding a 360° stage. There’s a sense of intimacy, regardless of your location in the room. 

Isaiah Hull, a spoken word artist from Old Trafford, opens the event. The room is silenced for his powerful poem exploring identity and soul. A self described ‘stand-up tragedian’, he is joined only by a DJ. Incense is lit on the decks; the set is blisteringly moving. He performs call and response with the audience for ‘BLACKFACE’, the raw passion evident in his emotive speaking. 

Moments before Sampha enters, the crowd politely parts to create his path to the stage. The room has filled quickly, yet it retains that airy, easy quality. The band enters to unsure cheers, but as Sampha walks out, the room erupts into joy. His entrance is accompanied by mildly unsettling bubbly sounds. 

Sampha Lahai Sisay is a multitalented and award winning artist from London, known widely for his collaborative works. He opens the set with a medley of ‘Plastic 100°C’ and ‘Hold On’, the latter a popular collaboration with SBTRKT. The band forms a circle around the stage, their backs to the crowd. It’s wonderfully ritualistic, offering a glimpse into a seemingly private jam session. 

No shortage of instruments adorn the stage. They masterfully switch between electric drums and synths, to piano and unaccompanied vocals. Each member is introduced and applauded in turn, their combined harmonies are ethereal. 

For ‘Inclination Compass (Tenderness)’, he is joined only by band member Elsas on keys. The stripped back ballad builds to a crescendo as the other members build in their harmonies and instruments. Even in tender moments, everyone on stage conveys an exhilaration that makes the experience so heartwarming. Lighting is used sparingly, the non-aggressive style of spotlighting exaggerating the seclusion. 

They abandon their positions to move centre stage, engaging in a group drum circle for ‘Without’. Sampha is infectiously happy, grooving around to the beat. A cover of ‘Gabriel’ by Roy Davies Jr is injected into the set, with a line from Seal’s ‘Kiss From a Rose’ weaving its way into ‘Spirit 2.0’.

Due to the lack of backstage area, the band sit down rather comically to allow for a solo rendition of ‘Too Much’ and ‘(No one knows me) Like the Piano’. His vocal range is spectacular, haze surrounding the stage in an attempt to mask the seated band members. 

He closes on ‘Blood On Me’, the stage lit in fantastic red to mirror the lyrics. Their vigour is palpable, forging a cinematic visual show. Members of the audience can’t stay still, dancing and singing as if the stage extends to the back walls. It is unsure whether an encore will happen at all, but after a long pause they re-enter, finishing on ‘Happens’ – a snippet from his 2013 EP ‘Too much / Happens’.