You just plug this into that, that into this, the what's-its-name into the thingumajig, and Bob's your uncle." On the great day, I burst in on the old man's breakfast, forced him to down spoon, so as to cripple him with my hearty handshake, andfished the recorder out of my pocket, trailing yards of black spaghetti into his prunes. Many orchestral players teach, but quite frankly, after six hours of Mahler and Stravinsky, thelast thing I want is a further two hours of screeching and caterwauling - after all, I do have to demonstrate. So it is in the hallowed halls ofjournalism that I unwittingly find myself wandering. I have just been asked to interview a composer who has recently written a symphony, and, honoured as I am, I quail at the thought.Previous attempts at this genre have not proved successful. They're all worth at least one performance, and until you've giventhem one performance, you can't assess them." So what works does he think ought to be heard next? "The big composer who reallydoes deserve a reassessment in performance is Walford Davies. And Havergal Brian's Cleopatra is a purple, Romantic choral work;the full score is gone, but it only needs re-orchestrating and would be really very good." Time, moreover, is not standing still, as Foreman warns: "Even while Robert's been doing this, things have been disappearing left, rightand centre. And when sets of choral parts disappear, you're faced with such a large expense that you can't necessarily revive them." Inthe meantime, he can cast his mind back over Tucker's track record with evident satisfaction: "In all that time I don't think he has hadone serious dud.". "I'M NOTHING like fucking Talvin Singh, but I do happen to have the same skin colour." So says Nitin Sawhney, whose new album, appropriately titled Beyond Skin, was released this week in the wake of the Mercury Music Prize win by Singh's OK.

Sawhney's album was intended for release in time for this year's Mercury Prize but, when it failed to get nominated, the release date was put back so it could qualify for next year's awards. Understandably, the thought that an Asian artist can't be expected to win two years running appals him. "I'M NOTHING like fucking Talvin Singh, but I do happen to have the same skin colour." So says Nitin Sawhney, whose new album, appropriately titled Beyond Skin, was released this week in the wake of the Mercury Music Prize win by Singh's OK. Sawhney's album was intended for release in time for this year's Mercury Prize but, when it failed to get nominated, the release date was put back so it could qualify for next year's awards. Understandably, the thought that an Asian artist can't be expected to win two years running appals him. Speaking in his dressing room at Ronnie Scott's in Birmingham on Monday night, just before going on stage with his band, Sawhney seems angry, amused and resigned in turn. EVER SINCE the television programme The Phil, people have commiserated with me about the tough life of an orchestral player. Not one to miss the opportunity of milking any shred of sympathy, I cannot deny that, with a mortgage to pay, family and 26 gerbils tosupport, extra income does come in handy.

EVER SINCE the television programme The Phil, people have commiserated with me about the tough life of an orchestral player. "I know it's the best I could have done, the rest is irrelevant." Can't they just give him the Mercury Prize now and bedone with it? 'Beyond Skin' is on now on Outcaste Records.. Massive Attack's Protection showed that you can put diverse music on one album and make it work." The diversity of Beyond Skin is one of its most compelling attributes, but what is even more impressive is the depth of the music, the layers of carefully crafted detail, revealed incrementally as you listen to each track again and again. This layering effect also played a part in the album's creation. "It's about delving into the deepest parts of yourself, stripping it back and trying to say it's OK to feel who you are and not be ashamed," says Sawhney. You had to fit into an English grammar school, then go home to an Asian context.

The problem was reconciling both things." Beyond Skin is Sawhney's most sustained effort of reconciliation so far "It's my statement of identity," he says. "I discovered that I was a stranger in both England and India in terms of nationality, and that I had to therefore define my own parameters of identity, beyond everything." He's adamant that the content of the album - the freight of ideas - doesn't detract from its form. "I see music as a linguistic thing, something that is about the communication of ideas. For me, the writing of music and the message behind it are the same thing.