Andreu G. Serra and Kiran Leonard are guitarists and good friends. They met nine years ago, having moved to Lisbon within a couple of weeks of each other by pure chance. While living together in a large, horrible warehouse in Alto São João, they recorded a set of improvisations later released as “The Piri Piri Samplers” (Memorials of Distinction, 2019), which captured the duo's distinct yet complementary approaches to their instrument: Serra's rasping, wildly idiosyncratic lead lines spilling over looping beds of tape manipulation and ebow, and Leonard's contrastingly traditional, no-pedals counterpoint. They played one show at an art gallery, both left Lisbon before the end of the summer, and did not live in the same country again for almost a decade.

Some years later, they decided to make a new record: the resulting "Making Friends" (STROOM, 2026), a huge leap forward in ambition and focus, sees the duo writing songs together for the first time, adding several new instruments (cittern, winds, drums, bells, harmonica, samplers, etc), and often singing in their native Catalan and English simultaneously. Darting between misshapen free blues, chamber folk, blasted-out drone feedback, and whatever the two can throw at each other or find lying in between, "Making Friends" is a reflection on a decade of friendship, and a vivid document of an eclectic, sometimes chaotic, and inspired musical dialogue.

Babe Rüya is a Glasgow-based experimental musician originally from İstanbul and Hitchin. She crafts beats using a mixture of found objects, homemade samples and drum machines, treating songs like sculptures and transforming experiences and feelings into sound.

Access Guide and Tickets for Personal Assistants

You can view/download The Glad Cafe's Access Guide here. If you require a ticket for a Personal Assistant/Gig Buddy (at no extra cost), please contact kim@thegladcafe.co.uk.