Kyan

Cambridge singer/songwriter Kyan Kuatois quickly drew comparisons to Frank Ocean on the release of his debut EP The Purple Experiment in 2014. Having taught himself piano when he was younger, he was eventually forced to choose between his three loves; acting, music, and basketball — which he had played at national level. Setting his heart on a career in music he dropped his surname, and his first taste of the spotlight came in 2010 when he was a contestant on Sky 1′s Must Be the Music, where he reached the semi-finals. Following that success, he went on to collaborate with well-known musicians like Duke Dumont and Benga. The buzz surrounding the artist led to him being signed to Virgin EMI, and his second EP Remote View arrived in 2015. The lead single “Sometimes” epitomized the kind of deeply soulful electronic music that Kyan was creating, but despite being warmly received in the music press he and his label would soon part ways, which led to his next project being self-funded. In 2017, he launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund Nothing Beyond, which he described as a “visual mixtape.” ~ Bekki Bemrose