It's dark. Pitch black, in fact. A cockerel crows, a donkey brays, and evocative sounds of morning life in Bamako, Mali, flood the senses. A moped buzzes past. The call to prayer begins. Flinging open the curtains on another day in Africa isn't on the agenda, though, because we are actually 4,500km away, in the function room of an insurance company's head office.
The sounds come from Amadou & Mariam, the world-famous "Blind Couple From Mali", who have just begun their latest project for Manchester International Festival: a series of gigs played entirely in the dark.
"If you cannot see, your sense of sound becomes richer," says Amadou Bagayoko, after the concert, entitled Eclipse, has finished. "I want the audience to hear the music just as Mariam and I hear it."
Is there a palpable difference to the experience of art when one's vision is taken away? That's the intriguing question which not only Amadou & Mariam play with here, but other musicians, playwrights and artists across the world have also begun to consider. Interestingly, the consensus is that, as soon as the lights go out, the focus is shifted from the artist to the audience.
When the indie band Friendly Fires played a similar gig in London a few years ago, it was partly a jokey attempt to overcome the drummer Jack Savidge's fear of the dark, but the group also wanted to encourage their fans to "feel" the music, rather than just hear it.
In fact, Marc-Antoine Moreau, Amadou & Mariam's manager and the co-creator of Eclipse, is sure that it's about more than just the music. "When you have your sight taken away at a concert, there is something psychologically different about your participation," he suggests.
"We're finding that anyone coming to the shows feeling at all unhappy on that particular day finds it quite a difficult, confusing experience. But if you're in a good frame of mind and open to what a concert in the dark might entail, then it really works. That's really interesting."
That openness is key to a similar concert series in London entitled Blackout. Here, audiences really are kept in the dark: not only are the lights off, but the bands' identities are never revealed, either. "The sensory distortion of total darkness forces a complete focus on the subtleties of sound," said the organisers Eat Your Own Ears, just before the first gig in May. "For the artists, absolute anonymity creates an opportunity to perform and experiment free from expectations and preconceptions."
Imagine the look on hundreds of hipsters' faces if the lights went up and they suddenly realised they'd been listening to someone really uncool.
I jest, but the interesting by-product of such events is that they are much more confrontational than one might expect. It soon becomes clear at Amadou & Mariam that the usual concert conventions will not apply - because you can't see the band (or indeed the person sitting next to you), there's no sense of a communal, joyful experience that one might usually expect from any successful touring group. It becomes, instead, a very personal, introspective 90 minutes - which is not always that easy to cope with.
"It wasn't like a normal concert," admits Bagayoko. "The audience were very calm and seemed to concentrate a lot more. They weren't even sure whether to applaud after we'd finished a song. So yes, it is a much more personal experience."
"And that has been interesting because usually I love giving off my energy to people in a normal concert," adds Mariam Doumbia. "It's like an exchange of feelings; even though I can't see them, they can see me. But in this case I can't do that so, to me, it feels more like a film or a piece of theatre. Eclipse is more cinematic in that way."
A film, of course, without any images. But Eclipse teems with soundscapes of Africa in between each song, storytelling from the poet Hamadoun Tandina and even evocative smells pumped into the space - although Moreau admits that the latter sensory experiment still needs a bit of work.
In a way, they were free to create their own narrative, which was also the concept behind The Question, a piece from the Extant theatre company, performed to great acclaim in London last year - once again, entirely in the dark. The piece asked its participants to navigate around Battersea Arts Centre, robotic lotus flower in hand. When the audience members approached something of interest, its petals unfurled as if bidding them to remain longer, and fragments of narrative were triggered.
The idea - to "transcend the normal divide between blind and sighted" - is something Amadou & Mariam can certainly empathise with.
"You know, we've thought about doing this for years," says Bagayoko. "People often ask us how we feel as blind people, and it feels like this is our answer, in a way. Being blind doesn't necessarily make you good at music, it just makes you concentrate more when you listen to it. Eclipse is all about making people feel and understand that, too."
It's probably overstating matters somewhat to suggest that turning the house lights down is becoming a trend - after all, the theatre company Sound&Fury was hitting the headlines way back in 2000 with its take on theatre in the dark, War Music. But we're certainly becoming increasing intrigued by it. Amadou & Mariam's concert was sold out. Blackout was also turning people away. And when the celebrated German artist Gregor Schneider brought his Kinderzimmer installation to Manchester recently, there were queues around the gallery to experience, essentially, a dark, empty box with the outline of a doorway in the distance. "The visitor will find nothing except his own inner experiences in that space," he said, rather moodily, at the time.
Which, despite the sheer joyfulness of Amadou & Mariam's music, is the point of Eclipse, too. "It's about using and feeding your imagination," says Bagayoko. "And, perhaps, a way of discovering sensations you never knew you had."
And you don't get that from a Take That concert.
UAE rugby season
FIXTURES
West Asia Premiership
Dubai Hurricanes v Dubai Knights Eagles
Dubai Tigers v Bahrain
Jebel Ali Dragons v Abu Dhabi Harlequins
UAE Division 1
Dubai Sharks v Dubai Hurricanes II
Al Ain Amblers v Dubai Knights Eagles II
Dubai Tigers II v Abu Dhabi Saracens
Jebel Ali Dragons II v Abu Dhabi Harlequins II
Sharjah Wanderers v Dubai Exiles II
LAST SEASON
West Asia Premiership
Winners – Bahrain
Runners-up – Dubai Exiles
UAE Premiership
Winners – Abu Dhabi Harlequins
Runners-up – Jebel Ali Dragons
Dubai Rugby Sevens
Winners – Dubai Hurricanes
Runners-up – Abu Dhabi Harlequins
UAE Conference
Winners – Dubai Tigers
Runners-up – Al Ain Amblers
The biog
Name: Younis Al Balooshi
Nationality: Emirati
Education: Doctorate degree in forensic medicine at the University of Bonn
Hobbies: Drawing and reading books about graphic design
'HIJRAH%3A%20IN%20THE%20FOOTSTEPS%20OF%20THE%20PROPHET'
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEdited%20by%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Idries%20Trevathan%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPages%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20240%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPublisher%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Hirmer%20Publishers%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EAvailable%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Now%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
MATCH INFO
AC Milan v Inter, Sunday, 6pm (UAE), match live on BeIN Sports
MATCH INFO
England 2
Cahill (3'), Kane (39')
Nigeria 1
Iwobi (47')
RESULTS
1.30pm Handicap (PA) Dh 50,000 (Dirt) 1,400m
Winner AF Almomayaz, Hugo Lebouc (jockey), Ali Rashid Al Raihe (trainer)
2pm Handicap (TB) Dh 84,000 (D) 1,400m
Winner Karaginsky, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar.
2.30pm Maiden (TB) Dh 60,000 (D) 1,200m
Winner Sadeedd, Ryan Curatolo, Nicholas Bachalard.
3pm Conditions (TB) Dh 100,000 (D) 1,950m
Winner Blue Sovereign, Clement Lecoeuvre, Erwan Charpy.
3.30pm Handicap (TB) Dh 76,000 (D) 1,800m
Winner Tailor’s Row, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer.
4pm Maiden (TB) Dh 60,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner Bladesmith, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar.
4.30pm Handicap (TB) Dh 68,000 (D) 1,000m
Winner Shanaghai City, Fabrice Veron, Rashed Bouresly.
Despacito's dominance in numbers
Released: 2017
Peak chart position: No.1 in more than 47 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Lebanon
Views: 5.3 billion on YouTube
Sales: With 10 million downloads in the US, Despacito became the first Latin single to receive Diamond sales certification
Streams: 1.3 billion combined audio and video by the end of 2017, making it the biggest digital hit of the year.
Awards: 17, including Record of the Year at last year’s prestigious Latin Grammy Awards, as well as five Billboard Music Awards
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
Fatherland
Kele Okereke
(BMG)
DMZ facts
- The DMZ was created as a buffer after the 1950-53 Korean War.
- It runs 248 kilometers across the Korean Peninsula and is 4km wide.
- The zone is jointly overseen by the US-led United Nations Command and North Korea.
- It is littered with an estimated 2 million mines, tank traps, razor wire fences and guard posts.
- Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un met at a building in Panmunjom, where an armistice was signed to stop the Korean War.
- Panmunjom is 52km north of the Korean capital Seoul and 147km south of Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital.
- Former US president Bill Clinton visited Panmunjom in 1993, while Ronald Reagan visited the DMZ in 1983, George W. Bush in 2002 and Barack Obama visited a nearby military camp in 2012.
- Mr Trump planned to visit in November 2017, but heavy fog that prevented his helicopter from landing.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Retail gloom
Online grocer Ocado revealed retail sales fell 5.7 per cen in its first quarter as customers switched back to pre-pandemic shopping patterns.
It was a tough comparison from a year earlier, when the UK was in lockdown, but on a two-year basis its retail division, a joint venture with Marks&Spencer, rose 31.7 per cent over the quarter.
The group added that a 15 per cent drop in customer basket size offset an 11.6. per cent rise in the number of customer transactions.
UAE v Zimbabwe A, 50 over series
Fixtures
Thursday, Nov 9 - 9.30am, ICC Academy, Dubai
Saturday, Nov 11 – 9.30am, ICC Academy, Dubai
Monday, Nov 13 – 2pm, Dubai International Stadium
Thursday, Nov 16 – 2pm, ICC Academy, Dubai
Saturday, Nov 18 – 9.30am, ICC Academy, Dubai
SPECS
Toyota land Cruiser 2020 5.7L VXR
Engine: 5.7-litre V8
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 362hp
Torque: 530Nm
Price: Dh329,000 (base model 4.0L EXR Dh215,900)
Match info
Uefa Champions League Group F
Manchester City v Hoffenheim, midnight (Wednesday, UAE)
RACE CARD
6.30pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-3 – Group 1 (PA) $65,000 (Dirt) 2,000m
7.05pm: Handicap (TB) $65,000 (Turf) 1,800m
7.40pm: Meydan Classic – Listed (TB) $88,000 (T) 1,600m
8.15pm: Nad Al Sheba Trophy – Group 3 (TB) $195,000 (T) 2,810m
8.50pm: Dubai Millennium Stakes – Group 3 (TB) $130,000 (T) 2,000m
9.25pm: Meydan Challenge – Listed Handicap (TB) $88,000 (T) 1,400m
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
