In 2022 progressive music’s unlikeliest trio, The Utopia Strong, launched their second album International Treasure. Steve Davis, Kavus Torabi and Michael J York told Prog how Timothy Leary, experiments on a cheap Chinese zither and a sports promoter accidentally led to the release.
The Utopia Strong didn’t realise they were becoming a band when they visited musician Michael J York’s home in Glastonbury in January 2018 for a modular synth jam. But they’d left a recorder running through their 13-hour session, and on returning from an extended sojourn to the pub, discovered – much to their surprise – that it all sounded rather good.
