The Utopia Strong + Tvål

SBD presents

THE UTOPIA STRONG

Saturday May 9th

The Utopia Strong are a semi-modular trio, delivering medical grade music to the visionary music head. The band were born on the evening of 2nd January 2018 after what can only be described as an experimental and revelatory improvised session together. Kavus Torabi, Michael York and Steve Davis have fused Modular Synthesisers with conventional and traditional instruments to create a weird and joyous celebration of all that is good about left field psychedelic music.

Kavus Torabi is an experimental/psychedelic musician with a long history in the field. He has his own band, Knifeworld and is frontman in the current line up of Gong. He has been a member in various other bands including Guapo and most notably a guitarist in the final line up of Cardiacs. He runs the boutique record label, Believers Roast, has collaborated with a wide range of left-field artists and co-presents a show on NTS Radio with Steve Davis, a show championing new, experimental, avant-garde, far out, underground, electronic, pop, folk, psych, rock and classical music.

Steve Davis was the most successful professional Snooker player of the 1980's, winning a total of 28 major ranking events including 6 World Championships. In recent years his involvement in snooker has been limited to TV punditry, which has given him more time to indulge in music related activities, namely collecting left field music from around the globe, presenting a monthly radio show on NTS Radio with Kavus Torabi and now joining forces with Kavus and Michael York to form The Utopia Strong, further cementing his growing interest in playing the Modular Synth.

Michael York is a multi instrumentalist and luthier, working mainly with modular/analogue synths and woodwinds (primarily focusing on bagpipes, reeds and flutes of Europe and the Near East). His piping has seen him work not only in the realm of folk, with the likes of Shirley Collins and the 7 piece bagpipe choir Zephyrus, but also with the esoteric avant garde ensembles Coil, Cyclobe, Current 93, Guapo and The Stargazers Assistant. In 2014 as an outlet for his voyages in alternate realities through the medium of analogue electronics he formed the modular synth duo Teleplasmiste (with Mark Pilkington) and the ambient psychedelia group The Other Without (with Neil Mortimer).

Studio albums:

The Utopia Strong (Rocket, 2019)

International Treasure (Rocket, 2022)

Doperider (Rocket, 2025)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r86AVQAc8m8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG02P9j406I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhXIE1MZbQA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIiT8klA_-U

https://www.facebook.com/theutopiastrong

https://www.instagram.com/theutopiastrong

https://open.spotify.com/artist/5Y2lwqHK1mYYIylNw18D2w?si=xJRJgTi0QQuY7DsB3aH7-Q

Plus support from TVÅL

Tvål make kaleidoscopic electronic sounds / deluxe analog psychedelia. Self-titled debut album out now on Cracked Plastic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvruWx8B5rE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUmCw7C7OOs

https://www.facebook.com/tvalband

https://www.instagram.com/tval_band

https://crackedplastic.bandcamp.com/album/tv-l

@ The Black Prince

15 Abington Square, Northampton NN1 4AE

Doors 7.30pm

The venue is 16+ [under 18s to be accompanied by a legal guardian]

The multi-story St Michael's car park [entrance on St. Michael's Road, exit on Abington Square] is a 40 second walk from The Black Prince