Pan Amsterdam is a musical enigma wrapped in an enduring riddle. His creator is a jazz musician from Houston who’s found fame working with Detroit punk rock God, Iggy Pop, and British indie royalty, Metronomy, and now makes shapeshifting, adventurous hip hop out of the music’s spiritual home, New York. He’s an irreverent character born out of frustration and named after a misunderstanding, yet one who’s on the verge of releasing his fourth album of truth-slaying, genre-crossing rhymes and beats. So, who is Pan Amsterdam? Everything you want him to be. And more besides.

Pan Amsterdam and his creator Leron Thomas’ creative endeavours have been touched by music’s rare capacity to connect kindred spirits. Over the years, he’s rubbed shoulders with an early incarnation of Destiny’s Child (as a child he won a talent competition in Houston alongside Beyonce and co, and even attended the same Performing Arts school), played with jazz great such as Robert Glasper, Charles Tolliver and Roy Hargrove, and performed with hip hop/neo-soul luminaries such as Kanye West, Lauryn Hill, Bilal, Erykah Badu and Mos Def

‘Confines’ the new Pan Amsterdam album dropped on Heavenly Recordings on May 23rd.