09 Feb 2012 — Henning Lahmann
Individual blogs and websites may err in their judgments sometimes (oh yeah, that has happened to us before), but it's hard to argue with anything that has been blessed with the endorsement of
20 Jazz Funk Greats and the review staff of
Boomkat, both such heavyweights when it comes to taste in music that seriously, we wouldn't even dare to disagree. Good thing then that there's also no need for quarreling here, as the new album by the curiously named fellow Gabo Gulbenkian is a terrific work, something so deliberately out of bounds that it left us puzzled and bemused, which really does not occur all that often.
Explorers, as Gulbenkian's debut is called, is a work that revolves entirely around, well, explorers, albeit in the widest sense of the term, as it also includes a piece about
Baron Münchhausen, for example. However, the track we have here exclusively for you is dedicated to the great
Ferdinand Magellan, and thus it appropriately starts with the sound of waves and seagulls, before an intriguing piece of synth music unfolds that explores (!) the hidden realms somewhere between 70s kosmische and contemporary elevator muzak, probably appearing odd at first approach but quickly developing into marvelously captivating five minutes of artistic extravaganza. Brilliant.
Explorers is out now on London's excellent
Dramatic Records. Buy it
here.
Gabo Gulbenkian - Ferdinand Magellan
