Tony Bevan

Described by Ben Watson as "one of the unsung heroes of modern British music", Tony Bevan is an improvising virtuoso on Soprano, Tenor and Bass saxophones. Growing up in Aylesbury, he was mentored by the great Lol Coxhill. He later became involved with London Musicians Collective and Oxford Musicians Collective, leading to an invitation to play Derek Bailey's international symposium of improvisers, COMPANY in 1988. He subsequently released several albums on Bailey's INCUS as well as recording with Bailey himself. Bevan has played with the likes of Sunny Murray, Steve Reid, John Edwards, Mark Sanders and Phil Minton as well as leading his own groups. 

Bevan currently lives in Glasgow, where he runs the fortnightly improvised music session Help Me I’m Melting. In addition to collaborating with members of the local music scene such as Fritz Welch, Una McGlone, Jer Reid and Bill Whitmer, Bevan invites visiting musicians such as Eddie Prevost, Ashley Wales, Seth Bennett and Johnny Hunter. His label Foghorn Records has documented some of these sessions, alongside studio and live dates with Tony Buck, Joe Morris, Jeb Bishop and Sunny Murray.

https://tonybevan.bandcamp.com

KAPIL SESHASAYEE

Following his acclaimed debut album ‘A Sacred Bore’ – featured in Pitchfork, VICE, NPR, BBC Introducing, The Guardian, The Quietus, and Rolling Stone India – Scottish-Indian artist KAPIL SESHASAYEE shifts away from the industrial-indie sound of the first full-length and towards an R&B-meets-Indian-Classical crossover on second album ‘Laal’.

While the serrated guitar architecture of Kapil’s first LP put forth a scathing critique of the lingering manifestations of the caste system that permeate Indian communities in the guises of honour-killings and hyper-nationalism, ‘Laal’, the second instalment of his Desifuturist Trilogy, expands on those issues, spotlighting less visible facets of the Bollywood film industry: “Every song from the album is going to tell a story about Bollywood,” says Kapil, ‘“..what’s not immediately visible. I want those stories to illuminate things that people aren't thinking about and empower those who live these stories. Bollywood informs so much of South Asian cultural identity but some of this influence requires greater scrutiny”.

"One of the most promising debut albums to come out of Scotland in recent years" – The Guardian

Dijeet Kaur Bhachu

Dr Diljeet Kaur Bhachu FHEA FRSA is a musician, educator, researcher and activist based in Glasgow. In 2017 she co-founded the Scottish-Asian Creative Artists’ Network (ScrAN), to address the issues specific to Scottish-Asians working in the creative industries in Scotland, and is a co-organiser of the Decolonising the Musical University conference that took place virtually in July 2020. Diljeet sits on Hal Leonard’s EDI Advisory Group, alongside other consultancy roles in the arts and cultural sectors. In 2021 Diljeet was invited to become a Fellow of the RSA (royal society for arts, manufactures and commerce), in recognition of her research and activism relating to race and gender issues in the music industry, and co-founding ScrAN. Diljeet is one half of flutes/taiko/electronics duo Velma, with Georgie White. She is in the live band for Kapil Seshasayee, and features on his albums A Sacred Bore (2018) and Laal (2022)s`. She also improvises and writes for her own solo project with flutes and electronics and is currently writing her debut album. You can read some of Diljeet’s poetry in The Colour of Madness, “a BAME Mental Health anthology”, published in 2018.

https://diljeetbhachu.com/2020/06/30/bio/

Stewart Smith

Stewart Smith is a music journalist, broadcaster and academic. He contributes regularly to The Wire, Bandcamp Daily, The Quietus, We Jazz, Tribune and Repeater Radio and teaches at Newcastle University. He is a board member of the Scottish Jazz Archive.

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