Growing up in the Norfolk countryside in the small village of North Lopham, it is entirely fitting that Luke Abbott should have recently taken up residence amongst the pastoral landscapes of the Border Community. Situated in the uniquely English countryside of the Fens, as well as being the childhood home of our latest electronic troubador, these sensitive wetlands also boast of being the only place in the world where the rare Raft Spider can be found...

26 year old Luke Abbott is a name which may already be familiar to some courtesy of his 2006 debut release 'B'B'B'B'B'B'B'B'B'B'B'B'B'B'B'B' on the now sadly defunct Output Records, which had the dubious honour of being the last slice of vinyl ever pressed by Trevor Jackson's legendary imprint. Since then, Luke has plugged the gap with a split 7” release on London's Trash Aesthetics (who have previously hosted the illustrious line-up of Bloc Party, The Rakes and Tilly and the Wall), before joining us at Border Community for the release of the rather accomplished 'Tuesday EP' in early 2008.

A musically ambitious selection of modern psychedelia, Luke crams six short but extremely sweet songs into just 22 minutes of the 'Tuesday EP', where DJ friendly bottom shifters rub up against dubbed-out nu-Kraut and 8-bit bleeps to form a cohesive home-listening experience almost worthy of (allbeit slightly short!) mini-album status. Luke's Border Community debut embraces his love of the experimental, but this is fused with a warmth and personality which knits the six tracks together into a coherent whole.

Producing at home on laptop, synths and “various other noise-making things”, Luke takes the slightly unconventional approach to music-making of working mainly in his sitting room with the TV on in the background. He comes to us very much from the more experimental and electronics-savvy side of the musical spectrum, and is not averse to generating his own software instruments and sequencers, or the odd spot of circuit bending and hardware hacking. In 2006 his hardware mutilation antics took him to New York, where he performed as part of his collective known as The Tour Company at the Bent Festival circuit-bending convention.

His love of the old school tape cassette meanwhile recently took him to Tokyo, in a collaboration with video artist friend Dan Tombs using tape cassettes and Fisher Price equipment to produce a short video work called 'Tape Tokyo', which was shown in the city's Vision's Gallery. His other current line of exploration is the world of improvised music, contributing home made electronics, feedback systems or live laptop sampling to various improvisational groups in his current home base of Norfolk.

Luke is clearly no stranger to the live circuit, but where earlier live shows have taken on a more electro or breakcore bent, he is currently preparing a more dancefloor-friendly version based around the rarefied melodies of his recent material, which we are happy to showcase at upcoming Border Community events. Although he can occasionally also be spotted playing records at the odd Norwich club, for Luke the focus is very much on the laptop-based live experience centred around his own special production style.