Graham Costello's STRATA [POSTPONED]

Graham Costello has been nominated for Scottish Album of the Year, as well as seven Scottish Jazz Awards.

After his widely-praised debut album Obelisk in 2019, Costello signed to Gearbox Records (Binker and Moses, Abduallah Ibrahim, Theon Cross, Sarathy Korwar). In May 2021, he released his follow-up album Second Lives to critical acclaim, with top UK jazz publication Jazzwise naming it one of the “Best Jazz Albums of the 2021”.

After beginning drums at age six, Costello was self-taught until his early twenties. He was then awarded a place to study Jazz at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where he graduated with a First-Class honours in 2016.

His musical career first began however with his involvement in the Scottish DIY/indie scene, growing up touring all over the UK and Europe with noise duo Young Philadelphia and electro-psych group Outblinker, experiencing the amazing warmth and breadth of the continental independent music scene.

Graham Costello formed STRATA in 2016 to blend stylistic elements of minimalism, jazz and noise bands together with a strong DIY ethic. This ethic came from Costello’s involvement in the Scottish DIY/indie scene, growing up touring all over Europe with noise rock and electro-psych bands, and experiencing the amazing warmth and breadth of the continental independent music scene. It was his formal studies in jazz that then led to the formation of STRATA - a band that would bring the two worlds together and become a crucial band at the forefront of new Scottish jazz artists surging into the UK scene.

This energy of noise rock, the organic improvisation of jazz, and the hypnotising patterns and feel of minimalism has been described as “a meteorite on the scene” ( The National)  Aside from his own work with STRATA, Costello is also an in-demand side man with bands such as corto.alto.