ONE of Glasgow's brightest new bands is getting ready to shake up the city's jazz scene.

The Cosmonaut Arkestra - a six-piece instrumental jazz funk outfit - have released their first EP after a successful gig as part of the Merchant City Festival put them firmly in the spotlight.

The "official" launch takes place on Monday in the Queen Margaret Union at Glasgow University and the buzz is already building.

"We're really excited about the launch, because now it's all about us getting our name known and our music out there," explains the group's youngest member, trumpeter Callum Neil.

The 16-year-old from East Kilbride adds: "We're really proud we have our own sound, that there isn't really anyone else doing what we do."

Since meeting for the first time as members of the Glasgow Jazz Summer School last year, the six musicians - who hail from destinations as diverse as Bishopbriggs and Belgium - have made it their mission to spend as much time as possible together recording and rehearsing.

"It's been difficult at times because we're all from different parts of the city, we're all either at school or students, and we have auditions and exams and work..." says Callum, who is a fourth-year pupil at Duncanrig Secondary.

"But we love what we do so much, that we made it our number one priority so we've just tried really hard to make time to fit it in."

Like Callum, bassist Mark Hendry, 17, from Glasgow's South Side, is still at school, while alto saxophonist Harry Weir, 18, from Paisley, and drummer Viktor Hristov, 21, who is originally from Belgium and now lives in the East End, are students.

Paul Lyons, 19, who is from Bishopbriggs, plays the tenor saxophone and is studying medicine at Glasgow University, and keyboard player Fergus McCreadie, 17, from Dollar, is studying jazz at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

"Our next big plan is a tour, hopefully round Scotland, and then we'd like to get an album out," says Callum, who jokes that he is upset most of his friends can't come to the EP launch gig because it's over-18s only.

He adds: "The gigs we have done have been amazing. We played the Riverside recently and everyone said we'd really captivated the audience, we brought so much energy.

"That's what we really want to do, to provide energy. We'd rather do a gig for one person who absolutely loved it and really got what we're trying to do, than play to 1000 people who thought we were just all right."

The Cosmonaut Arkestra play Jim's Bar at the Queen Margaret Union on Monday (November 28) at 7.30pm. Tickets are available on the door for £5. The EP, Crash Landing, a mix of funk classics and original compositions, is available now to download from iTunes, Spotify, CDbaby and Amazon.

Find out more at http://thecosmonautarkestra.weebly.com/ or visit the band's Facebook page.