THE ΜΑΝ FROM UTOPIA

A mercurial six-string psychonaut, Kavus Torabi wields his Jazzmaster in some of Britain's most out-there bands, from fronting Gong to sharing stages with Steve Hillage and former snooker champion Steve Davis. We join him on his quest to find musical Utopia...

- Jamie Dickson

Psychedelic rock has never really gone away, but there’s a palpable sense it is having a bit of a resurgence – or at least a very vivid flashback – at the moment. And right at the centre of that growing musical mandala is Kavus Torabi. A former member of seminal art-pop outfit Cardiacs, he’s been the frontman of Gong for the past eight years, broadening that band’s rich catalogue of lysergic prog with compelling new music. Somewhat improbably, he’s also the musical partner-in-crime of snooker legend Steve Davis, who has found his new métier playing modular synth in an improvisational trio called The Utopia Strong with Kavus and traditional pipes specialist Mike York. We venture out to Glastonbury – still a centre for esoterica of all stripes – to find out how Kavus makes his intrepid vision for guitar work all across this universe of sound.

Your musical partnership with Steve Davis has led to a band based on live improvisation combining guitar with modular synthesis. How did that come about?
“I met Steve at a show that [French prog outfit] Magma was doing. I knew he was a huge Magma fan – I’m a massive fan myself – and I’d seen him at Magma gigs in the UK but was a bit shy to talk to him because, you know, he’s Steve Davis. But I saw him in France and started talking to him because I thought we were probably the only Brits there. And so I started chatting, and, within about 30 seconds of talking to him, he stopped being Steve Davis the snooker player and we really, really got on well.