Kavus Torabi

Kavus Torabi is a guitarist, singer and composer born in Tehran and raised in Plymouth, a musician who has spent three decades working the outer edges of British psychedelia and progressive rock. He cut his teeth as a founding member of the math-rock band Monsoon Bassoon before joining the cult art-rock group Cardiacs, and now fronts the long-running space-rock outfit Gong as principal songwriter, a role he took on after founder Daevid Allen's death. Alongside Gong he leads his own project Knifeworld, plays guitar in the instrumental group Guapo, and forms one third of The Utopia Strong, an improvising trio built around modular synthesizers whose other members include former snooker champion Steve Davis. His solo albums - autobiographical songs written, performed, and even hand-lettered entirely by himself - trade in mortality, love, and transcendence, and have built him a reputation as one of Britain's most restless and inventive songwriters. He has also co-authored a memoir, Medical Grade Music, and co-hosts a long-running radio show devoted to left-field music.