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From YouTube to East London, recreating the comfort of a home in a derelict house, the Mahogany Sessions introduced its first immersive live music event; a sold-out experience held over four nights called TRESPASS. From the exact location to the line-up to the real concept of the events, everything had to remain secret until the end of the last performance on the last day in order to offer each member of the audience a magical experience. Even social media waited quietly for this bank holiday weekend to be over before sharing some information.
TRESPASS x Mahogany was brought to life by three directors and music passionates, who wanted to bring to the world a new (and provoking) way of enjoying music: Ben Spetsiotis from IAM New Music, Lowri Gerrard from Universal Music, and Josh Sanger from Barn On The Farm Festival. Although the concept may look different from the Mahogany Sessions, it remains faithful to the mission it had when created as a blog in 2009: “deliver great music to your eyes and ears as much as possible”. Expanding the platform in 2010, the Mahogany Sessions has since received over 65 million views on YouTube and featured important talents such as George Ezra, James Bay, and Hozier.
"The response to our first-ever Trespass event has been frankly overwhelming,” says Josh Sanger. “It’s a concept that breaks the rules, promotes unpredictability, takes away the barrier between the audience, artists, and their music and ultimately asks you to take a massive punt on the unknown.”
Featuring four artists of different horizons and with different fanbases, TRESPASS also created four rooms, with four different stories on four different floor. Each room was close enough to create an intimacy between the acts and their audiences, and large enough to move and dance and enjoy each note of each song.
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The first act to perform was Amber Run, a Nottingham Folk Rock band, who has recently received more than 1 million views on their Mahogany Sessions with ‘I Found’. In a blue hazy room, filled with a tree, a bathtub, a piano and the logo of the band, Amber Run performed a few of their debut album’s most famous songs, including ‘I Found’ for which a secret choir recreated the powerful Mahogany Sessions performance. To end up a very quiet acoustic performance where every whisper became a loud shout, Amber Run performed for the first time in London their new single ‘Haze’. The whole Amber Run set was so powerful and simple that it brought tears to many people in the room - who then, for most, blamed it on the room atmosphere. I’m in a blue haze, a blue haze.
Then came the moment for trespassers - a name given to the audience - to go on the first floor of this house to see Soul Indie artist Martin Luke Brown perform. Hidden in a small chamber in the room, only light and sound were leaking from the doors and windows of this chamber giving a very mysterious touch to the performance, which drastically changed when Martin Luke Brown appeared in front of the audience for the rest of his show. After a few technical difficulties hidden by the singer’s humour, the exchange between the London-based artist and the trespassers was increasing up until the moment the whole room sang Britney Spears, marking the end of Martin Luke Brown’s show. Hit me, baby, one more time.
On the second floor, in a very modern-romantic atmosphere, the flowers welcomed the trespassers, waiting for the new pop emerging talents to begin: Lyra. The soft tones of the room were echoing the softness of her voice, letting the audience wonder if they were really attending her performance of “Rabbit In The Headlights” or if they were stuck in a fairytale, just like Alice in Wonderland.
Just like Alice in the fairytale, trespassers had to go downstairs through the darkest whole or staircase to get to the last part of Wonderland. In a room that would make anyone who was a teenager in the 90s-00s, with posters of Oasis on the wall and dozens of CDs, the last act of the night was about to perform. Manchester-based Urban band Prose, which mixes rap, blues, and rock, took the audience inside their universe, both visually and musically. Bringing memories of their childhood with the lyrics of their songs, the band who recently signed with Virgin EMI had the tough role of leaving a good and lively memory in trespassers’ minds. And they did; they wrapped up the night in perfection.
“The fact that all four nights sold out proves that this is more than just an idea - it’s a musical world that people are ready to explore and in our opinion an essential step forward in presenting live music,” adds Sanger. “This is just the beginning..."
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TRESPASS has managed to let people discover up and coming artists in the purest way possible: via live shows. With a touch of magic and mystery, trespassers seem to want more shows, more mysteries, more love. Let’s just hope it doesn’t become too mainstream.
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Have a nice day
xx
