Born and bred in South East London, Nitin Sawhney has become a cultural icon. A gifted multi-instrumentalist, remixer, producer, and musical innovator, he has created a musical genre of his own and has won numerous awards in the process. Sawhney is a latter-day Renaissance man, whose work includes scoring films, composing for world-class orchestras, and recording award-winning records.

It is hard to think of a modern musician who can boast a broader range of skills and achievements than Nitin Sawhney. He is not only a classically-trained pianist and flamenco guitarist but also a cutting-edge club DJ and producer, which may explain why he is the only artist ever to have been invited to play both the BBC Electric Proms and the "real" Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. He has composed numerous orchestral symphonies and soundtracks for clients ranging from the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Ballet of China to Sony Playstation 3. He is also a cultural and current affairs commentator on television and in the print media, a patron of the arts and a respected community leader.

Since starting out in the back of a van more than 20 years ago as a touring member of the James Taylor Quartet, Sawhney has travelled the world both with his own band and various orchestras. At the core of his illustrious career are seven pioneering studio albums, the most celebrated of which, Beyond Skin (1999), was shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize and won the South Bank Show Award.

His eighth album, London Undersound, is another work of extraordinary variety and vitality. Featuring a cast of guest contributors that includes Natty, Reena Bhardwaj, Ojos de Brujo, Anoushka Shankar, Roxanne Tataei, Tina Grace, Aruba Red, Imogen Heap, Faheem Mazhar and Paul McCartney, the album embraces a far-flung range of musical and cultural influences, to put it mildly. And yet the collection is deftly bound together by Sawhney's masterful production, and a narrative subtext which runs through the diverse strands of music like a thread of steel.