Hypnotising and powerful minimal music.
Scottish drummer and composer Graham Costello creates music that ranges in energy from delicate, meditative ambience to cinematic post-rock, harnessing the power of repetitive, entracing minimalist patterns. With his band STRATA, he has been nominated for Scottish Album of the Year, as well as eight Scottish Jazz Awards. STRATA’s energetic and organic groove music, alongside the hypnotising patterns and feel of minimalism has been described as “a meteorite on the scene and beyond.” (The National)
Costello and his peers are among the prominent new Scottish jazz artists bursting into the UK and International jazz scene, including corto.alto and Fergus McCreadie. In May 2021, after his widely-praised debut album OBELISK in 2019, Costello released his follow-up album with STRATA: Second Lives on Gearbox Records, to critical acclaim, with top UK jazz publication Jazzwise naming it one of the “Best Jazz Albums of 2021”. 2023 sees Costello refining the sound of STRATA, with greater focus on collective repetition and cyclic grooves, and shifting the gravity of the new music more towards his voice on the drums.