Photo by Sam Walton

KOGG - Selena Kay & Cerys Hogg

KOGG is an experimental electronic music duo founded in 2018, a fusion of the musical influences and interests of

Both formally trained - Selena has her roots in classical contemporary composition and Cerys in jazz improvisation and art - they found a common interest in creating new music, integrating concepts from both disciplines and forging a unique sound and approach.

KOGG combine their skills in composition and improvisation, create new instruments and have developed their own distinctive sound world. The starting point of KOGG’s process could be a recorded sound, a constructed instrument or a musical fragment. They incorporate composed, generative and improvised elements with a sonic palette derived from traditional instruments, homemade instruments and field recordings.

Sound design plays a key part, with KOGG building and shaping their unique sounds from recorded sources, such as cracking ice, bouncing ping pong balls, and discarded MOD firing targets. This is coupled with homemade instruments, such as an array of whistles from Christmas crackers and a rack of spanners played with Meccano, and traditional musical instruments.

Throughout the compositional journey, KOGG takes experimental approaches to playing instruments and working with material, aiming to avoid traditional ways of thinking. Although their musical influences stretch far and wide from Bach to Bartók through Bowie and Brazilian music, everything they create is a new exploration, free of constraints regarding style or genre.

KOGG take the listener on a multi-textured musical journey incorporating off-centre melodies and elastic rhythms, fabricated with an ear for both the familiar and the unknown.

KOGG released their first EP In July 2022. Having performed material from the EP at the Festival of New 2021 in Snape Maltings, they were commissioned by Britten Pears Arts to create a 45-minute work for the Aldeburgh Festival which was performed in June 2022, along with the Ligeti Quartet. This multimedia work, Belastica, written for live electronics, live video, and string quartet, is based on the ethnomusicological explorations of Béla Bartók, sampling recordings made on wax cylinder in the early 1900s.

In January 2023, KOGG were selected for Nonclassical Battle of the Bands and out of six finalists, they came in as runners-up. In November 2023, KOGG performed at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, selected as part of their Fielding Talentprogramme. In 2024, KOGG headlined at Nonclassical’s 20th Anniversary Club Night. In August 2025 KOGG were invited to play at Radar Festival Beyond Music in Varna, Bulgaria.

In performance, KOGG presents their music with projected visuals, resulting in a captivating and theatrical audio-visual experience, described by audience members as highly original and defying genre categorisation.

KOGG release their debut full-length album Mechanista in May 2026 on Nonclassical. This release is supported by a PRS Foundation Women Make Music Grant.

Pre-order MECHANISTA here