Baby U Know is the brilliant chance-taking new record from the extremely likeable Bas Jan.

Bas Jan were co-founded in 2015 by songwriter, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Serafina Steer. Now expanded to a four-piece, the band also features Emma Smith (Jarv Is, Meilyr Jones, Seamus Fogarty and founder member of the Elysian Quartet) on violin, bass and electronics, Rachel Horwood (Trash Kit, Bamboo, Jenny Moore’s Mystic Business) on drums and Charlie Stock on electric violin. Their debut album Yes I Jan was followed in 2018 with the release of the Instant Nostalgia EP, shows around the UK and Europe, and dates at festivals including Green Man, Doune the Rabbit Hole and End of the Road.

“Baby U Know marks a consolidation of Bas Jan as a four piece,” says Serafina. “It was recorded at Cafe OTO in London over three days and then finished with Capitol K at the Total Refreshment Centre in London in September 2020. Getting the Arts Council Funding and making the album represented a coming together out of the solitudes of 2020, carving out the possibility of a future for the band at a time when Brexit and Everything cast all those things very much into doubt or, at best, made them a very low priority. The time constraints of having to finish the record before one of the band entered third trimester of pregnancy, and with a winter lockdown pending, probably added a rawness to these recordings. It’s kind of a pragmatically hopeful record.”

Serafina Steer is a vocalist, harpist, bassist and keyboard player who has released four critically-acclaimed solo albums – the latest of which The Mind Is a Trap came out in 2019. She has appeared both live and on record with musicians including Lone Taxidermist, Bat For Lashes, Chromehoof, Hannah Peel, Sean O’Hagan, Rozi Plain, John T. Gast, Patrick Wolf, Tunng and John Foxx. Since 2018 Serafina has worked closely with Jarvis Cocker, developing material and performing live as part of his project Jarv Is…, the debut album by which Beyond the Pale – also featuring extensive contributions from Bas Jan’s Emma Smith – was released in 2020.