Strata release a new album, ‘Second Lives’, on Gearbox Records.

The 11-track follow-up to 2019’s debut long-player ‘Obelisk’ is now available via Bandcamp, on vinyl, CD and as a download.

Included on the long-player are previous singles ‘Lyra‘, from June last year, and ‘Eudaimonia‘ from February 2021.

The Glasgow-based ensemble were founded by drummer and composer Graham Costello in 2016, playing as a quartet and sextet, and include on piano Fergus McCreadie, whose solo album was recently released on Edition Recorda, 2018’s Young Scottish Jazz Musician Of The Year Joe Williamson on guitar, and Mark Hendry on electric bass.

Recorded straight to tape at RAK Studios, mixed at British Grove, and subsequently mastered in-house at Gearbox, the ‘Second Lives’ version of Strata also included trombonist Liam Shortall – who also leads jazz collective corto.alto – and saxophonist Harry Weir, leader of AKU!.

Co-producing and engineering was Hugh Padgham – the legendary four-time Grammy Award-winner, who has worked with the likes of Phil Collins, XTC, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Brian Wilson, and Paul McCartney. Strata’s album is the first new material he has worked on in almost a decade.

Of the album’s origins, Costello says: “My evolution as a person aligns with my evolution as a musician.”

The composer has Burmese-Indian ancestry on his mother’s side and has been exploring his family tree: “My mum found a photo of her “Nana” recently and sent it to me. She was an entirely different ethnicity from me, wearing clothes I’d never seen a family member wear, and yet we saw a remarkable resemblance down the family tree to my mum and then to me.

“Many other people around the world will have similar stories, and I just find it all fascinating.”

The band have previously appeared at Oslo and Firenze Jazz Festivals, and in 2020 were set to appear at Love Supreme Festival, Novara Jazz, and Montreux Jazz Festivals, as well as tour the UK for the first time. Previous album ‘Obelisk’ also saw them long-listed for a Scottish Album of the Year Award and named as one of Jazzwise’s Ones to Watch.

More at www.grahamcostello.com / www.facebook.com/STRATAband.