Date: 21 September
Tricky, real name Adrian Nicholas Matthews Thaws, is a trip hop pioneer from Bristol, UK, currently residing in Berlin. A quarter-century after his first appearance on wax, and collaborations with Beyoncé, Yoko Ono, and Grace Jones, he still possesses sounds entirely his own –  a blend of alternative hip hop, ragga, rock, reconstructualising samples and slices of both the most respected black music and the tackiest pop.
Growing up in a rough neighbourhood, Tricky was involved in multiple misdemeanours from a young age. When he turned 15, Tricky began meddling in music and started writing lyrics that reflected the reality of his life. Soon after Tricky found himself a part of the group that was destined to become Massive Attack. Interested in pursuing his own music, though, Tricky left Massive Attack in 1994 just shy of the release of his first album, “Maxinquaye”. The album went gold in the U.K and was nominated for Mercury Prize; the critics spazzed out; David Bowie himself wrote a prose poem about the artist for Q magazine. “Maxinquaye” has been followed by a dozen albums, from which the most notable are “Nearly God”, “Pre-Millennium Tension”, and “Angels with Dirty Faces” – all top 30 hits on the UK album charts.

In 2017 Tricky returned with his 13th album, “ununiform“, a delicate, storming, intricate album that saw him take perhaps his most radical step yet – a journey into happiness and contentment, confronting  his legacy, history, and even death itself. Four tracks of the album were recorded in Moscow, featuring a Russian rappers Scriptonite, Vasily Vakulenko (Basta), and Smokey Mo.