Kavus Torabi + Cicada

For the last two decades, Kavus Torabi has been responsible for a staggering body of work that includes his transformative and unusual instrumental music with The Utopia Strong, the rich, complex output of his own octet, Knifeworld, or fronting the legendary Gong at Daevid Allen’s request, taking the psychedelic stalwarts into incendiary and ecstatic new realms with four studio albums and counting, not to mention his involvement and contributions to Cardiacs, Guapo and The Holy Family. However, it is as a solo artist he weaves all the strands of his idiosyncratic vision together. Fusing the celestial with the human, the joyful with the melancholy, blending the autobiographical with the metaphysical. Over his albums Hip To The Jag (2020), The Banishing (2024) and the forthcoming album (released Autumn 2026), Torabi has crafted a shimmering, singular and otherworldly realm of exquisite songwriting and poetic lyricism. Heartbreaking songs of love, loss, mortality of optimism and regret. A multi-instrumentalist, Torabi’s charismatic presence and haunting voice is accompanied by guitar, harmonium and synthesiser, each performance an immersive, transformative and ritualistic experience. On The Banishing- “Situated in mind-blown astral reaches, while at the same time firmly rooted in the kind of hedgerow psychedelia that informed artists from Syd Barrett to XTC’s Andy Partridge” The Wire “With him jostled by thoughts of loss, sorrow and regret, it comes as no surprise that The Banishing has its downbeat moments but Torabi’s identity as a conduit for vivid and uplifting psychedelic explorations is strong enough to withstand an emotional battering, and the experience has inspired some of his most tender and affecting songs yet” Classic Rock “Tender and affecting” Classic Rock “Transcendent and Glorious” The Quietus “Naked and confessional…a magical, psychedelic ritual” Louder Sound Support comes from local artist Cicada Cicada is a Swansea, Uk based experimental musician on the frontlines in the war against AI. He builds texturally rich electronic and jazz inspired loops using only his guitar and various effects pedals to create the least guitar like sounds possible to build his large sounding atmospheric soundscapes.