Don is a musician, he played with Quincy Jones and Sérgio Mendes. He is also an engineer, and he built and experimented with synthesizers very early on. He created the Live Electronic Orchestra in the early Seventies which led to the development of MIDI. We hear how he requested a Rhythm Unit from Roland and ended up helping to build it!2020 saw the Roland 808 drum machine's 40th birthday and its global impact on music has been huge. Electro, Hip-hop, House, Techno, Soul, Funk, Drum and Bass to Trap - the 808 is at the heart of their stories. It literally changed the sound of popular music.

Japan’s mighty BORIS tell us about the music scene in Japan and the country’s love of heavy metal and experimental noise. Experimental music group BORIS comprises drummer Atsuo, guitarist/bassist Takeshi and guitarist/keyboardist Wata. They formed in Toyko in 1992. This interview was conducted with Takeshi and translated and voiced by Ms Rie Hiramatsu-Hunter

Exploring Kenya’s extreme grindcore and hardcore scene with duo Duma. Duma members Martin Khanja and Sam Karugu are former members of bands Lust for a Dying Breed and Seeds of Datura. They formed Duma together in 2019.

Takiaya Reed and Sylvie Nehill of the American / Australian drone duo Divide and Dissolve share how their experiences as Black & Tsalagi [Cherokee]and Māori women has informed their heavy sound. Mirroring the brash, bone-crushing potency of their dynamic Drone music, the formidable Takiaya Reed (saxophone, guitar, live effects) and Sylvie Nehill (drums, live effects) carry their fight and ancestors fight forward, using the power of their performances to raw attention to the ongoing battle against system oppression.

Swedish singer Robyn shares her love for Prince which started as a young child dancing to her mum's albums. She will discuss his seminal album Sign O' The Times and how his emotional lyrics have influenced her immensely.

Dub poet Roger Robinson, winner of this year's prestigious TS Eliot prize talks us through his early influences, the inspiration behind his poetry and his collaborations with electronic musician The Bug, as part of the brilliant King Midas Sound. Roger won the TS Eliot Prize for his collection of poetry titled, 'A Portable Paradise', which tackle themes such as racism and events such as the Grenfell Tower fire, as well as exploring the idea of paradise and searching for it throughout life.

Paul Wright created the British Culture Archive to document, highlight and preserve the changes in British society and culture through social and documentary photography. His focus is on post war working-class culture and diverse communities that are frequently overlooked by more established archives. The archive is currently hosting an exhibition of photography called The People’s City, at The Refuge in Manchester. Paul Wright tells us more about it. Photo credit: Richard Davis

Charlotte Dos Santos has Norwegian and Brazilian heritage and was raised in Oslo. She studied jazz at Berklee College of Music in Boston and Flamenco and Mediterranean music in Valencia. Her debut album Cleo was released in 2017 Charlotte chats about her new track Harvest time - and the themes surrounding it, which include shedding your ego, metamorphosis, the influence of nature and the influence of Pharoah Sanders. She’s back in the UK as part of her first headline European tour.

Russian DJ and producer Nina Kraviz talks about heading up a very special remix project. St Vincent approached Nina to make one remix of a track from her album ‘Masseduction’, and Nina suggested curating a series of remixes of the whole album. This became a record called 'Masseduction Rewired', Nina called in some of the most innovative electronic artists in the world, including Jlin, Laurel Halo, Steffi, Midland, Mala, Pearson Sound. We asked her to talk us through the journey, from meeting with St Vincent aka Annie Clark in New York to rewiring the sonic structures of the record.

Jaz Coleman may be best known to you as the lead singer with eighties post-punk band Killing Joke, but he has another career as an acclaimed classical composer with a global reputation. He discusses his work and much-missed bassist Raven.