The Horn, St Albans
Wednesday, 15th October 2025
St Albans is about 25 minutes by train from my London hub of choice, the delightfully brutalist wasteland that is Euston station, so in that respect it is no harder to get to than any venue in deepest sarf London, but it seems somehow even more out on a limb. “Out on a limb” is also a good summary of tonight’s foray into the inner psyche, which takes place in a music pub of repute, visited for the first time this benign autumn evening by yours truly.
Andrew Liles
Support was provided by Andrew Liles, one man and his sundry boxes of tricks that produce industrial noises and dark ambience as a soundtrack to a video backdrop of seemingly disconnected cut ups of an assumed deliberately jarring nature. The parts of the half-hour performance that featured fleeting melody engaged my attention, but I did find my mind wandering during the harsher moments. The whole video/sound collage seemed thematically disparate, which didn’t help.
LINKS
Andrew Liles – Website | Facebook | Bandcamp
The Utopia Strong
After a short break Kavus, Michael, and Steve took up their positions on the small stage and fired up the electronica to take us on a journey of thoughtful and considered psychedelia. While improvised, no doubt some of it was based around themes from the band’s fab new azure waxing Doperider, that I have caressing my ears as I type.
Watching the chemistry between the three sky pilots as they steer the good ship Utopia Strong through the Magellanic Clouds of our imaginations is a treat. Stage left as we look sits Steve Davis, a picture of concentration hunched over his modular synth like a chemistry teacher setting up a particularly complicated experiment. Centre stage is Kavus Torabi, who alternates between a harmonium, a mini synth of some sort, and occasional bass, and even less occasional guitar, as well as offering intermittent words of encouragement to Professor Davis.
While Steve and Kavus interact, occupying his own seemingly separate universe, but adding essential layers to the sound we have, stage right, Michael J York. Twiddling a less arcane looking box of tricks than Steve’s, manipulated through effects pedals, and later blowing various exotic wind instruments, and of course, using that gorgeous looking gong to great effect, Michael knows exactly where all his many contributions fit into this tight-but-loosely woven magic carpet of sounds.
The band play for around an hour that flies by in no time and play a short encore you could almost dance to! All quite lovely. A convoluted journey homewards back to the sticks meant I thought I couldn’t hang around to chat to the band, although train timings turned out such that I could have stayed for 10 minutes anyway! O well, there will be a next time, I’m sure. And I can recommend The Horn, it’s a decent little venue. Get down there and support live music!
[Photos by Roger Trenwith]
SETLISTS & MUSICIANS
Neither of these acts do setlists, and the musicians are all described in the review! 😊
