Welcome To Asteria

Welcome To Asteria is the latest release premiered on BBC Radio 6 Music by Mary Anne Hobbs. Written and produced by Luca in collaboration with Mark Cake.

This short film was made by Luca in collaboration with filmmaker Marco Alessi and a whole family of extremely talented artists. In Luca’s own words : “Maybe it’s about this idea of shadow time… the rigid edges of temporalities colliding as we try to navigate survival in this crazy world… is utopia reachable / necessary / desirable? Or is it in fact the imagination that keeps us breathing”

Luca Manning blends the sounds of Jazz, Alt Pop and Faerie Folk to create ethereal transcendent lullabies and visceral sonic responses to the messy navigation of the human experience. Introduced as a ‘relatively mysterious artist’ by Mary Anne Hobbs (BBC Radio 6 music), Luca remains a provocative and experimental artist who is deeply committed to asking more questions than providing answers.

In Luca’s own words :

In a world that relies on our compliance in a status quo fed on our disparity and individualism, I am compelled through creativity in an ongoing search for connection. Music is my way of communicating my internal and external world. It brings me in and out of my body. I believe in the power of voice and am fascinated by how we assert, subvert, communicate, assume, manifest, evolve, and manipulate our identities with our voices. I feel this is especially poignant in the current landscape of our world. I believe deeply in collective art making, conversation, and collaboration. I feel a deep resonance with the ethics of care, the inherent creativity within our being, the longing for a spiritual connection to the land and our shared interdependence.

It is easy to feel hopelessness when we consider the bleak that surrounds us... and yet I carry a hope in that we are yet to discover a myriad of ways to express how we can connect and respond to the challenges we are faced with. Improvisation to me feels as close as we can get to continual becoming - it offers us an imaginative gateway to new ways of thinking, experiencing and changing. It is from these embers that we can breathe life to build anew.

My current ongoing work is invested in responding to the world we find ourselves in. Asteria Asteria is a journey in our collective imagination. It is still in its early stages ; existing as a flow of ideas and experiments. The first full length work welcome to asteria exists as an audiovisual world featuring a song written by me and accompanying film made in collaboration with filmmaker Marco Alessi. It is my hope to continue developing and exploring Asteria as a potential for expression, ideas and catharsis. Asteria is about cultivating a space for creative dialogue, a space where art & imagination meet action to engage in creative risk taking and radical systemic change. A place for learning, failing, exploration, and upheaval. Asteria is a long form part archive / part experiment, a creative response to our times. It is neither an arrival nor a destination but instead something driven by intuition and built collectively. I hope that together we can explore our multiplicity and begin to collectively express how we navigate our lives at this crucial point in our history.

I grew up in the buzzing city of Glasgow, and in recent years, I have come to realise the profound experiences and upbringing this beautiful gritty city has afforded me. I am awestruck by Scotland’s land, nature, rich folklore and musical traditions. Growing up in the city introduced me to a fertile and exciting music scene where I could play and experiment to find my voice. Growing up, music was a constant in my house and my mum raised  me on an eclectic selection of radical voices of beautiful femme ferocity. I cherish the nostalgic sounds of The Gossip, Sinead O Connor, Sylvester, Björk and Bronskie Beat. As a teenager, I fell in love with the tender melancholy in the voices of Amy Winehouse, discovering the sounds of Billie Holiday and Chet Baker. This gateway led me into the discovery of a thrilling new language ; jazz and improvisation. I quickly immersed myself in this rich musical and culturally history and began to learn the language. I had many impactful teachers for which I am eternally grateful…thank must be given to Alan Benzie, Stephen Duffy, Laura MacDonald and Liane Carroll for their early support and encouragement as I was finding my feet. This fervour for jazz and the artistic freedom it yielded led me to move to London after High School to begin a Jazz degree at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. While studying at Guildhall I had many incredible mentors and formed new musical partnerships throughout four years of intensive study. During this time, I ventured into the dynamic force of the London Jazz Scene as an emerging artist. I enjoyed the thrill of performing at staple London venues such as The Vortex Jazz Club, Pizza Express Jazz Club in Soho and went on to headline the iconic Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club. I was awarded Newcomer Of The Year at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards, featured as a soloist in Jazz Voice : The Opening Gala of the EFG London Jazz Festival and released my debut album ‘When The Sun Comes Out’ ; a collection of songs performed in duo with long time collaborator and friend Fergus McCreadie and special guest Laura Macdonald. It is also while at college that I began to search for my identity, leading me to write my dissertation on the intersection shared between Queerness and Jazz Music. Alongside my surface level successes, I felt a deep sense of isolation and disconnect within the jazz ‘scene’. My career as an emerging artist had become central to my self worth and acted as a suitable distraction from nourishing the parts of myself that I had deeply neglected. I began to research the history of queerness present in the Jazz tradition and began to connect with other like minded artists across the globe.

When the pandemic struck, I was offered the privilege to spend time with myself… to reflect, introspect, and ask if I were truly happy. I am acutely aware that this is a privilege not afforded to all - that many of the people most affected by the pandemic are indeed still the most marginalised in our society. I feel a deep gratitude for the positive outcomes I managed to take away from this time, whilst recognising this is largely due to my own privileges. I emerged from the pandemic with a deeper, more integral sense of who I am. I began to reconnect with my body and voice - I came to realise I had been on a path fuelled by disassociation, surface level success and unhealthy workloads, leading to self destruction and caught up in the escape of hedonism. I began to slowly make changes that have led to taking more care of myself and where I am today. I found Queerness and the Queer and Trans+ Community. I began to connect with ways of being and becoming that I never knew existed. I maintain that Jazz  and improvisation as a process, as an art form is inherently queer. This is an ongoing source of creative discussion for me as I went on to host and curate a Jazz FM voices show titled ‘Jazz Is Queer’, co curated and hosted‘Their Stories x Jazz Is Queer’ at The Standard in London and have spoken on the inaugural Queer Jazz panel event @ Woolwich Works in London.

Following my graduation from GSMD, I have enjoyed the exciting adventures the world has offered me so far. I was a resident artist at the Roundhouse in London throughout ’22/’23. This was a beautiful experience and I am forever grateful to all at the Roundhouse for their continuing support in my art and creativity. During this time, I connected with a beautiful family of artists and found my wings as a transdisciplinary artist. I had the opportunity to perform in the magical Roundhouse Main Space supporting Richard Dawson and Laura Viers respectively, both as part of the In The Round Festival. I also enjoyed hosting the Roundhouse Poetry Slam regional heats during the ’22 and ’23 competitions. Also within my resident artist tenure, I performed at The Great Escape Festival in Brighton and ook my ‘queer songbook’ show to Wilderness Festival 2022. This show is my love letter to queer musical icons. It made its debut in the infamous basement of ‘The Glory’ in East London and went on to appear at Wilderness Festival and The Triangle in Deptford.

Whilst a roundhouse residence artist, I released the EP, noises with friends. At the time it was perhaps my most honest and adventurous music to date. A self-proclaimed antithesis to the performative perfection that has us chasing our tales amongst the current rat race, fogging our creative process. ‘noises with friends’ sinks into the messiness and spectrum of emotions intrinsic to our experience as we try to figure it all out. The EP features original music written by Luca, with collaborators Hugo Piper (bass/FX) and Christos Stylianides (Trumpet/FX). The EP tracks are unedited, rehearsal room experimental recordings that took place at Hugo’s flat in South East London. The only cover on the EP is Anohni’s ‘Hope There’s Someone’ - an incredibly special song to me. This track then went on to be remixed by a dear friend and electronic sound genius Will Davenport. The EP launch show took place at VFDalston ; a queer community space where Luca’s creativity and adventure has been supported. VFD’s founder Lyall Hakaraia has been a prominent supporter and mentor to Luca in recent years.

Further performance highlights from recent adventures include Fierce Festival in Birmingham ’22, supporting the legendary Jools Holland at the St James Piccadilly Piano Festival ’23 , performing alongside Trans Voices and Years & Years ’22 and London Jazz Festival ’23.

I was a selected artist on the 2023 cohort of ‘Take 5’ - a talent development programme run by Serious. This was a nourishing experience where I was able to connect with a range of artists from the jazz and improvised idioms. We spent a week together in the cotswolds creating, laughing, eating, moving and exploring.

As an educator, I have worked with the Scottish Trade Union Congress delivering a series of webinar courses on Songwriting for workers in various sectors in Scotland. I also have a lovely lil cohort of private students who I enjoy regularly teaching at my London home. I recently delivered a series of work as a facilitator which involved delivering voice and movements sessions for adults with experience of additional needs. There is a great joy to be found in being a teacher / mentor / facilitator…to be faced with a room full of human beings looking to learn, experience, connect has made me a better artist and I look forward to continuing on this journey.

Aside from music… I have enjoyed working in the speciality coffee industry as a barista, I have worked with global fashion brands to deliver talks and presentations on my experiences and inclusivity, I have been involved in the research and development of experimental theatre projects, I have spoken and read at poetry events alongside other Trans+ and queer writers, I have enjoyed helping out at my local FoodBank, I am an aspiring yogi, I have co-founded a sub stack page with the enamouring writer Thymian Gadd where we exchange letters and conversation, I have co hosted the podcast ‘How Not’ with fellow Scottish Creative force of nature Kim Macari, and I hope to discover more adventures coming my way… I hope to outgrow this story tomorrow… thank you for reading this… you can sign up to my personal substack mailing list on this page if you’d like to receive more of my ponderings… or come to a show to experience the sound in what I hope to communicate… with love, Luca x

Fervent Sensations

Fervent Sensations is a song exploring the pulsation of desire, the messiness of emotional ambivalence, the intoxication of socially constructed ideas of beauty and sexuality…

Track written by Luca Manning

Co Produced by Mark Cake

Spoiled Film

Spoiled Film is a playfully melancholic, self - proclaimed ‘goth bop’… with a little sonic nod to the likes of SOPHIE

Track written by Luca Manning

Co Produced by Mark Cake