Kavus Torabi

Kavus Torabi (born 5 December 1971) is a British-Iranian musician, composer, record label owner and radio broadcaster. A multi-instrumentalist, he is known for his work in the psychedelic, avant-garde rock field (primarily as a guitarist). Torabi was a founding member of the Monsoon Bassoon (as singer, guitarist and one of the two primary composers), was a member of the cult rock band Cardiacs, and fronts and plays guitar for the current lineup of the psychedelic band Gong.

Torabi also leads his own group Knifeworld and is a member of Guapo and the Utopia Strong. He sometimes tours and records with Mediæval Bæbes and Rob Crow, and frequently collaborates with other notable artists working in left-field music.

Torabi was born on 5 December 1971^[1] in Tehran, Iran^[2] to an Iranian father and an English mother. His family moved to Plymouth, UK, when he was eighteen months old; originally planning to return once his father had made sufficient money, but ending up settling permanently following the 1979 Iranian Revolution.^[3] Torabi has said most of his family remains in Iran, but he himself has never returned due to the compulsory two years national service he would have to serve.^[3]

According to Torabi his parents "weren't really into music, and there wasn’t much around the house."^[4] He recalls his mother having three or four albums and knowing between two and four chords which she tried to teach him, which he said caused an aversion to learning chords that was "probably the starting point" to his peculiar musical style.^[3] Torabi was interested in the music from TV shows, inventing his own form of notation and using it to score out the theme from CHiPs.^[3] When he was seven, his family bought a piano and he used it as a compositional tool – already writing songs of his own, he showed little interest in learning those of others.^[3] From 1980, he became interested in music through Brian Setzer and Stray Cats after seeing them on Saturday morning TV, thinking, "Oh god, this is what I wanna be. I've got to be this guy."^[4] Eight years later, aged sixteen, he discovered his main musical touchstone in the form of Cardiacs, although in the interim he had taught himself more about music by sequential obsessions with various other bands and music forms.^[3]

Torabi's first significant band was Die Laughing, formed in 1988.^[5] This was a psychedelic/thrash metal group formed in Torabi's native Plymouth in which he played guitar and in which he first met his close friend and collaborator, Dan Chudley. (Chudley – a fellow guitarist and singer – has been part of Torabi's life for most of his musical career, and the two are noted for their interlocking, highly complex guitar style.) Die Laughing released three demos before they eventually split in 1993.

In 1994, Torabi reunited with Chudley, who had been playing in a band called Squid Squad since the previous year. The two formed a new band called the Monsoon Bassoon, in which they were joined by bass player Laurie Osbourne and two more Squid Squad members (singing clarinet/flute/sax player Sarah Measures and drummer Jamie Keddie). Their musical – an energetic and tuneful form of psychedelic math rock – was built around Torabi and Chudley's singular compositions. The group soon relocated from Plymouth to Leyton, East London and began to gain underground attention, releasing recordings on their own Weird Neighbourhood Records label.

Since the mid-1990s, Torabi had had a close working relationship with Tim Smith, the lead singer and songwriter for Cardiacs, who produced the majority of the Monsoon Bassoon's recordings. Torabi was Cardiacs' guitar technician from around 1995 to 2003.

Despite scoring several Single of the Week awards in New Musical Express, the Monsoon Bassoon failed to get signed to a larger label or make a significant commercial breakthrough, although they did receive critical acclaim and a cult following for their unorthodox approach and sound. The band released a lone, well-regarded studio album (I Dig Your Voodoo) and five singles, and split up in 2001 following the exit of Keddie. Many of the band's recordings remain unreleased.

Before the split of the Monsoon Bassoon, Torabi toured as guitarist with former Pogues member Spider Stacy's group, Wisemen (which also featured other ex-Pogues). After line-up changes, the group became The Vendettas.

Torabi co-wrote and produced an album with Spider in 2003, but the project was shelved in the wake of the Pogues' reunion that year. Torabi has subsequently expressed an interest in releasing the album on his own Believers Roast label.^[3]

Torabi joined Cardiacs as second guitarist in 2003, replacing Jon Poole. His first appearance with the band was at their now legendary three-date Garage concerts, at which they played only archive material from their first two cassette releases, although he was not publicly revealed as a full member until the next round of concerts.

Torabi featured on Cardiacs' 2007 single, "Ditzy Scene", for which he also wrote the lyrics.^[6] He also contributed to recordings for the long-awaited sixth and final Cardiacs studio album titled LSD, released on the 19th of September 2025, 18 years after "Ditzy Scene" was released. Cardiacs, which had a lineup of Tim and Jim Smith, Torabi, Bob Leith, Melanie Woods and Cathy Harabaras, stopped their activities in 2008 when Tim Smith was forced to retire from the scene due to neurological problems that caused him difficulty with speech, movement and muscle spasms which arose following a cardiac arrest.^[7]

Torabi joined the instrumental avant-psychedelic/progressive rock band Guapo as permanent guitarist in 2006. He has toured extensively with the band, and has co-written all albums since 2013. In 2021 the band (while retaining the same lineup) took on a new identity as The Holy Family, releasing an eponymous debut album in July of that year.

Knifeworld originated from around the time of the Monsoon Bassoon's breakup, but only released its first material eight years later, following a long recording period. Originally a solo project, it has since become a full band.^[3] Knifeworld was Torabi's main compositional vehicle, in many ways continuing ideas and approaches to polyrhythmic songwriting and arrangements that were germinated in the Monsoon Bassoon.

Torabi started the label Believers Roast in 2009, initially as a platform to release his own music, however since the release of 2010's The Leader Of The Starry Skies it has released music Torabi feels particularly strongly about, including The Gasman, Thumpermonkey and Redbus Noface.

He played guitar with Chrome Hoof between 2009 and 2010 (contributing to the 2010 album Crush Depth).

Torabi played guitar and cuatro as a recording and touring musician and occasionally wrote with the Mediæval Bæbes. After Torabi joined Gong, Charlie Cawood took over as the multi-instrumentalist, a role Torabi asked if Cawood was interested in, knowing Cawood played saz, oud and non-Western instruments.^[8]

Torabi had been a Gong fan since his teens,^[9] and the band's outsider, countercultural stance was hugely important to him.^[10] Professional snooker player Steve Davis, also a long term Gong fan, introduced Torabi and Daevid Allen,^[11] after the two had already briefly met a couple times, when he brought them together for The Interesting Alternative Show which Torabi co-presented with Davis.^[12] Allen reported that he had an "instant flash of recognition" that he had met a future member of Gong and that he and Torabi were immediately intimate good friends.^[11] Allen recruited Torabi as an additional guitarist, despite having never heard him play.^[10] Torabi joined Gong in 2014 and debuted on the album I See You that year,^[13][14] where he joined founders Allen and Gilli Smyth along with their son Orlando on drums, Ian East on saxophone, Dave Sturt on bass, and Fabio Golfetti on guitar.^[15] After some Brazilian gigs in early 2014, while the band were completing I See You, cancer was spotted in Allen.^[13] Gong had a 42-date tour booked to promote I See You, and once promoted, heard that Allen was unable to appear on the tour and would not be performing, meaning most of the gigs were pulled. Gong agreed to honour the remaining dates, and Torabi said that he would be happy to sing,^[14][9] though he remembered "I was pretty reluctant – partly because one of the reasons I joined was to be in a band with Daevid. I didn’t have 100% confidence it would work."^[13]

Before Allen died of cancer in March 2015, he left Torabi in charge of the band,^[16][17] expressing his wish that they continue with the new recruit as frontman.^[18] Torabi didn't see a future for the group beyond the tour until the band started rehearsing, which he said "completely put to sleep" any fears of Gong becoming "some sort of tribute act" once they played.^[14] Torabi "never expected or particularly desired to front Gong" but thought the band sounded "so good" that it would have been "stupid not to continue".^[14] He was also happy that the latest incarnation was not like any previous version of the band, stating it was "exactly what Daevid wanted".^[14] In April, Torabi, East and Sturt appeared as Inspiral Gong at a concert to remember Allen.^[13] In May, Gong featuring Torabi as frontman along with East, Sturt, Golfetti and Cheb Nettles confirmed a five-date UK tour for October entitled You Can't Kill Me,^[17] which Torabi admitted he had not been certain about.^[14] Torabi dispelled uncertainty about Gong's ongoing prosperity in an interview with Prog magazine.^[9] He called the continuation of Gong "kind of a brand new band, but with this blueprint to draw from and create stuff in the style of".^[10]

In a review for Rejoice! I'm Dead! (2016), Ian Fortnam of Prog said Torabi's vocal style as the 'new' Daevid Allen echoed the Canterbury stylings of Caravan member Pye Hastings, calling it perfect for the exemplary material on Rejoice! I'm Dead!, but also not "exactly robust".^[19]

In May 2019, Gong released their second post-Allen album,^[18] The Universe Also Collapses, which Torabi called "the ultimate psychedelic rock album".^[20] The band marked the album's announcement by releasing a radio edit of their track "The Elemental" and announcing a run of UK tour dates.^[21] Jordan Blum of PopMatters said the the album's arrangements "fuse the deep-rooted penchants of Allen with the thoughtful peculiarities of Torabi".^[20] In 2021, Torabi said that the arrival of lockdown scuppered plans for a new Gong album. Without new work incoming, Sturt revisited multitrack recordings of three Gong shows from their The Universe Also Collapses tour in Newcastle, Nottingham and Leeds and selected the best performances for the live album Pulsing Signals, which released in February 2022.^[22]

In November 2025, Gong released the single "Stars in Heaven", announced live dates for March 2026, and teased the release of their album for 2026, sharing the title, Bright Spirit. Talking about picking the first song to be released, Torabi said "it has felt as if there’s an extra weight on the choice, as if the song somehow has to represent the whole album", which he called "the most colourful and kaleidoscopic album so far from this incarnation of the band."^[23]

In the line-up of the reformed darkwave sextet Miranda Sex Garden, which announced a run of live dates in July 2023 for September and October, Torabi replaced founding member and guitarist Ben Golomstock who died in 2018.^[24] In April 2024, the band announced a run of live dates for May which included their first overseas shows since 2000, and shared a video for the single "Velventine", a two track EP featuring the guitars of Golomstock and Torabi.^[25] In May 2024, reviewing the band at the Wave-Gotik-Treffen festival in Leipzig, Germany, Louder Than War's Michael Nottingham noted the "wailing waves" of Torabi's guitar during the track "Broken Glass" from Carnival Of Souls (2003).^[26]

Between 2010 and 2018 Torabi co-presented "The Interesting Alternative Show" with former snooker player Steve Davis on Brentwood radio station Phoenix FM.^[27] The show focussed largely on experimental, avant-progressive, psychedelic, electronic, folk and rock music with an emphasis on new releases. Guests included Daevid Allen, Chris Cutler, Charles Hayward, Bob Drake,The Fierce and the Dead, Sanguine Hum and Stars in Battledress. During, and subsequent to, the broadcast of The Interesting Alternative Show, Torabi and Davis worked together presenting live public DJ sets, including an appearance at the 2016 Glastonbury Festival.^[28]

Torabi and Davis subsequently formed an electronic music band called the Utopia Strong in which Torabi plays guitar and harmonium, Davis plays modular analog synthesizer and Coil associate/Holy Family member Michael J. York plays pipes, drones, synthesizers and electronics. Their first album The Utopia Strong was released on 13 September 2019 and has been followed by a series of three live recordings available as digital downloads and limited edition vinyl issues. In April 2021 they released the double autobiography Medical Grade Music.^[29]

Since the breakup of The Monsoon Bassoon, Torabi has maintained an ongoing (if interrupted) musical relationship with Dan Chudley, resulting in several other projects. The first of these was Miss Helsinki, a more straightforward rock band which recorded a couple of tracks and played a few acoustic gigs in 2002. The band failed to find a steady lineup (despite assistance from Richard Larcombe from Stars In Battledress and from Monsoon Bassoon drummer Jamie Keddie) and consequently folded. Torabi, Chudley and Keddie worked together again when they formed another rock band, Authority, in 2005 (the lineup was completed by Craig Fortnam of North Sea Radio Orchestra on bass). Authority recorded several songs and played live over the next two years, but never released anything beyond a couple of MySpace uploads. The band split in 2007 due to the various members' other commitments and Chudley's move to Cornwall.

Torabi and Chudley have worked on another project together – the instrumental Hatchjaw and Bassett, which Chudley has described as "acoustic spiritual music". This project has not released any records, although a video featuring the duo and their music has appeared on YouTube.

Torabi is a member of Admirals Hard, an occasional "sea-shanty supergroup" made up of members of London math-rock bands and avant-garde folk groups (Stars in Battledress, Tunng, Max Tundra, Foe and The Monsoon Bassoon) and fronted by singer Andy Carne. Torabi plays mandolin and guitar (and sings backing vocals) for the group.

Torabi has been described as a "psychedelic polymath",^[31][32] or a "left-field polymath",^[33] a "ravenous musical polyglot",^[32] and a "self-confessed control freak".^[34] In 2024, Torabi was called "a disciplined and radical figure who methodically works at his music, writing and visual art" by Jonathan Wright of The Quietus.^[35] He is reluctant to be pegged as a particular stylist, and his music has always drawn on a wide variety of influences. These have included indie and alternative rock (Pixies, Shudder to Think, XTC), British and American art/progressive rock (Cardiacs, Henry Cow, Yes, Hatfield and the North, Don Caballero), folk music, minimalist music, various forms of hard rock and heavy metal (Voivod, Melvins) and many others. His compositions are often typically dense, polyrhythmic and based in the Lydian mode.

In a 2014 biography on Knifeworld, Emma Johnston of Prog called Torabi "an enormously gregarious character with a Cheshire cat grin and a mop of hair that seems to have a life of its own".^[34] Describing a chat with Torabi through Zoom in 2021, Miranda Sawyer of The Guardian noted: "his curly-haired head looms out of a starry universe background. Things aren’t much less cosmic when he manages to get rid of it and reveals himself to be sitting in a book-and-CD-lined sitting room with walls painted like a lilac sky."^[36]

Sawyer compared Torabi's appearance to Steve Davis' suburban, straight-laced, undemonstrative one: Torabi wore a sage-green embroidered kurta with wild curly hair whilst Davis wore a T-shirt and black tracky bottoms, with a short grey crop. In the interview, Davis commented "As a result of being around Kavus, I'm very aware that I’m no longer allowed to wear any type of blue jeans. I'm wearing black chinos instead. As yet I've struggled to get into pointed boots. I find they're uncomfortable on the ankle."^[36]

In 2024, Wright commented that Torabi came across "like a bit of a hippy" and "a kind of grounded psychedelic trickster" while interviewing him, and that the way Torabi dresses—with tousled hair, nail varnish and a fondness for primary colours—is influenced by his ideas of finding magic in everyday experience.^[35] Torabi said "I thought, once I started dressing up like this, that it makes life more fun. I was wanting to be that guy, so why not be that guy? It's ludicrous, swanning around in the pub wearing red winkle-pickers and stupid hair. People look at you and think, 'Who's this wanker?' But I don't care. We're all who we pretend to be anyways, it's only a flesh avatar, you know?"^[35]

Torabi married Dawn Staple in 2003.^[37] Their daughter, Sima, was born in October 2009.^[38] As of 2021, Torabi had a dog called Teddy,^[39] who made a brief appearance in a video Torabi created in the 2020 lockdown for the song "Cemetery Of Light".^[40]

In his early 20s and late teens, Torabi often took LSD and wrote music with it. He credits psychedelics with rewiring his mind in a positive way and allowing him to turn his life around from the "very miserable life" he could have had, given his upbringing.^[41] Torabi made decision to move to London and take music seriously while on LSD.^[41] He moved from Plymouth to London when he was 21, and he had lived in a basement in Hackney with his wife and daughter during the lockdown, which he called "a very, very difficult time for all three of us".^[35] He said "my relationship with my wife and daughter just seemed to deteriorate during lockdown. And try as we might, we couldn’t really get it back on track. After lockdown I went on a one-month tour with Gong, and when I came home afterwards it was clear they just didn’t want me back. I think I’d become unbearable to live with."^[32] In his 50s, Torabi also realised he could no longer afford to live in London with space for his collection of musical instruments, and took up an offer from his Utopia Strong bandmate Michael J York to move to the Somerset Levels to be York's lodger,^[35] leaving the family flat where he had lived for 30 years.^[32] In 2024, Torabi was based in Glastonbury, where he went for walks up the tor.^[35] Torabi reflected on the challenges in his personal life in the writing of his second solo album The Banishing (2024).^[32]

Albums

• Hip to the Jag (2020)
• The Banishing (2024)

Collaborative albums

• Heaven's Sun (2023, with Richard Wileman)^[42]

Extended plays

• Solar Divination (2018)

Singles

• "Cemetery Of Light" (2020, Hip to the Jag)^[43]
• "The Sentinel" (2020, Hip to the Jag outtake)^[44]
• "Snake Humanis" (2024, The Banishing)^[45]
• "Heart the Same" (2024, The Banishing)^[46]

• Davis, Steve; Torabi, Kavus (15 April 2021). Medical Grade Music. London: Orion Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-4746-1950-9.

• Official website
• Kavus Torabi on Facebook