| Gazpacho | |
|---|---|
Gazpacho at Dingwalls, London 2011 |
|
| Background information | |
| Origin | Norway |
| Genres | Art rock New prog |
| Years active | 1996 - present |
| Labels | Happy Thoughts Production Kscope |
| Associated acts | Marillion |
| Website | http://www.gazpachoworld.com/ |
| Members | |
| Jan Henrik Ohme Jon-Arne Vilbo Thomas Andersen Mikael Krømer Lars Erik Asp Kristian Torp |
|
| Past members | |
| Robert R Johanson Roy Funner Geir Digernes |
|
Gazpacho are an Art rock band from Oslo, Norway.
The original core band of Jan-Henrik Ohme (vocals), Jon-Arne Vilbo (guitars) and Thomas Andersen (keyboards, programming, producer) started making music together in 1996 and the band has since expanded with Mikael Krømer (violin, co-producer), Lars Erik Asp (drums) and Kristian Torp (bass).
Gazpacho's music has been described by one critic as being "classical post ambient nocturnal atmospheric neo-progressive folk world rock".[1] The music has been compared to A-ha, Radiohead, Marillion and Porcupine Tree.
Without the backing of a major label, Gazpacho is one of many bands now utilizing the resources of the Internet to create word of mouth promotional opportunities, with a reliance on their website and its forum, online shopping, MySpace and other 'net initiatives to spread the word. This allows the band to hold down full time jobs, yet still manage to release an album a year with total artistic control over their compositions and distribution.
Contents |
Childhood friends Jon-Arne Vilbo and Thomas Andersen had played together in a band called Delerium before, which in their own words "whittled away."[2] After several years of separation, the two friends met again and started making music together again. Andersen had met Jan-Henrik Ohme through his work as radio commercial producer and brought him in to the jam sessions, which laid the foundation for Gazpacho as it exists today.
The band name comes from an attempt to describe their music.
Andersen: "We are a very unlikely mixture of people really, not the average types you'd expect to see in the same band… so we thought Gazpacho, which really is the bastard of soups (meshed up vegetables served cold), was the perfect name for our group(...)With Gazpacho you get a surprise, something unexpected, something out of the norm, a 'positive' contradiction. We feel this describes our band very well.".[2]
Roy Funner played bass on the finished recordings of the band, though he wasn't part of the writing process. For the drum tracks a computer was used.
For two years the band worked on a concept album Random Access Memory; a piece of work which they discarded altogether when they felt they had not yet reached the level of musical maturity for such an ambitious project.[2]
All three members of Gazpacho were involved with the Scandinavian branch of Marillion's The Web fanclub.[3] This led to Ohme being invited to sing the Marillion track Afraid Of Sunlight at the Swap The Band show of the first Marillion Convention Weekend.[4][5] At this convention the band handed out free four-track promos called Get It While It's Cold[6] to anyone interested. These promos also found their way to several internet magazines which gave the band almost unanimous acclaim[7][8][9] with one reviewer calling the music expertly-crafted and truly inventive.[7]
In May 2002 the band entered a song contest on Make-A-Star[2][10] with the song Sea Of Tranquility and won. Their second entry, Ghost made it to second position, but was enough to gain them the opportunity to release an album through MP3.com.[11] Get It While It's Cold (37°C) contained three tracks of the promo EP and three new tracks. One of these new tracks, Nemo saw the band winning the Make-A-Star contest for a second time. The release of the EP continued to garner the band international acclaim[12][13][14]
In 2003 the band released their first proper album Bravo, which contained five of the six tracks off the MP3.com album, and six new compositions. Utilizing the possibilities of the Internet the band had teamed up with the American singer/songwriter fellow Make-A-Star contestee Esther Valentine and New Zealand producer Peter Kearns. Valentine sang a duet with Ohme on the song Novgorod (which she also co-wrote) and Kearns produced two of the tracks off Bravo. Bravo gained the band more international acclaim,[15][16][17] with Dutch leading music magazine Oor stating "their debut album is a rare beauty"
The band was invited to perform at the second Marillion Convention Weekend.[18] For their live band the band was further expanded with drummer Geir Digernes (who had also played drums on some of the tracks on Bravo) and for the performance of the title track they were joined by Mikael Krømer (violin) and Kristian Skedsmo (flute)
The performance at the Convention Weekend led to a support slot on Marillion's 31-date European Marbles tour around 11 countries, further raising the profile of the band. For this tour Robert Johansen joined the band as the new drummer, and Mikael Krømer and Kristian Skedsmo also joined the live line-up.
Prior to the tour the band released their second full-length album, When Earth Lets Go, giving them enough material for their live repertoire. On When Earth Lets Go the band collaborated with producer Steve Lyon (Paul McCartney, Depeche Mode, The Cure) who had agreed to produce one track Substitute For Murder to see if he could potentially interest any labels. Despite Lyon's involvement, the increased awareness after the Marillion, and more rave reviews on their album[19][20][21] the band was not able to secure a record deal.
In the end their friends of Marillion came to the rescue offering Gazpacho the chance to release their next album on the band's own Racket Records label.[22] Racket released the band's third album Firebird and re-released Bravo and When Earth Lets Go. The support of Marillion also led to the collaboration with guitarist Steve Rothery who plays a solo on the track Do You Know What You Are Saying. Other guest appearances on the album came in the form of fans who had been encouraged to send in sound samples which the band would use. Among the unusual instruments featured on the album are maracas, a comb and a Leopard II battle tank.[23]
Roy Funner had left the band after the 2004 tour to focus more on his family and he was replaced by Kristian Torp. With the new line-up the band supported Marillion once more on 4 gigs during the Not Quite Christmas Tour. After this tour Kristian Skedsmo announced he no longer wanted to go on prolonged tours away from home and the live line-up was reduced to a six-piece band.
After a year of silence %22Night%22 was released in February 2007. For this occasion the band was once more invited to appear at the Marillion's Convention Weekend, this time in The Netherlands[24] The band also played their first international headlining gig at the Boerderij in Zoetermeer, The Netherlands on February 1, 2007.[25][26]
Night shows a departure of the short song format of the previous albums, but instead consists of one long 50-minute conceptual piece, divided into five parts. In the words of the band it is a
musical description of a dream or a stream of consciousness. It explores the question of where dreams end and reality begins and the mind as the tool that has to decide what to believe. The character goes through various memories real and imagined and sees the world from the angles of different people. He travels through time and visits places across the world including old New Orleans and Ancient woods with Pagan rituals being performed. Night is about life and the various ways of interpreting existence. Pretentious? Oh yes but delicious as well... very delicious.[22]
Mikael Krømer, who had played violin on all previous albums and live shows, was welcomed as a full-time band-member on Night, also earning a co-producer credit. Night also saw the return of Kristian "The Duke" Skedsmo, playing six different instruments on the album. Skedsmo rejoined the band for a one-off live appearance in Oslo on January 19, 2008.
The album was almost instantly well-received in prog-circles, topping the Just For Kicks Music sales chart for two weeks after its release.[27][28] The (prog related) international press was almost unanimously positive, calling the album "very, very grand art",[29] "nothing short of a masterpiece"[30] and "an incredible album".[31] The album charted in the reader's top 20 at Progwereld for more than a year.[32]
Night also did very well in several readers' polls at the end of 2007. The album was voted 9th best album of 2007 by listeners of Polish radio station MLWZ[33] and 8th best album in the Dutch Progressive Rock Page Poll.[34] The album is also in the top 10 of 2007 at Progarchives.[35]
During one of the live performances of "Night" on July 18, 2008 the audience at the Boerderij in Zoetermeer, The Netherlands get a first taste of a new work in progress song called '"Tick Tock" which was played for the first time in his entirety clocking 22 min and 24 seconds. Later it appears to involve the title track for the successor of "Night".
As of October 1, 2008 the band teamed up with new management and booking agency: WiV Entertainment. The goal is to be able to be more on the road with their new release.
On March 15, 2009 the 5th studio album "Tick Tock" was released on HTW Records a division of Sony BMG. The album is based on the story of French writer and naviator Antoine de Saint-Exupery who took off in an attempt at a long distance flight from Paris to Saigon (1935). He crashed in the Desert many hours later stranded with his co pilot Prevot. Later he recounted his experience in a book called Wind, Sand and Stars and this story forms the basis of the "Tick Tock" album.
The metaphor of a desert walk represented by a ticking clock may not be sublime but by golly the music is in moments. The apathetic underscore of a sweltering almost synthy loop which really is a b4 organ played through a guitar amp and a sequencer brings at first hesitation then desperation then more hesitation and then something happens and you get sucked into a glassy mood.
Almost as if you were walking a long and lonely walk in the desert where there is only you, the stars, wind and sand, the sound of your footsteps softened by the burning sand and heard only through the bones of the body.
In connection with "Tick Tock", the first official headlining tour (Tick Tock Tour) was a fact and from march 26th till the 8th of April 2009 six different countries where paid a visit. In the meanwhile raving album and gig reviews where published.
"If you are a fan of music that transports you to another place, you will find nothing better. !" 10/10 and "...Gazpacho achieved the impossible. They deliverd an album as good as "Night". Which band can deliver two masterpieces after each other these days? !" to quote only two, more can be found here reviews
10 July 2009 Gazpacho head off to Germany to perform as headliners for the 4th night of the prog festival at Loreley Germany. The concert was caught on tape to be released in January 2010 as "A Night At Loreley". The first official live album and limited edition DVD is a fact. At the end of 2009,during the process of editing, mixing and producing that first DVD , comes the news that Robert R Johansen (drums) has decided (due to personal circumstances) to leave the band.
At the end of 2009 "Tick Tock" reached top 5 ranks in various polls: among them are rank 5 at DPRP, 2nd at MLWZ in Poland and Rock Area, 1st rank at Dutch Progwereld, etc. pp.
In the early day's of 2010 replacement for Robert is found in Lars Erik Asp, just in time to get known to the music before the second part of the "Tick Tock" tour (The T.B.A. tour) kicks in. Again the March/April period is planned to visit 6 countries again, planned because due to a plane tragedy in Poland with the corresponding 1 week of mourning, the polish promoter had decided to cancel the concerts in Poland from 16–18 April. The dates where postponed until September 2010. On the 1st of May 2010 the first concert in the U.S.A. is a fact, as part of a prog festival the band plays at the Majestic Theater in Gettysburg Pennsylvania, later for the German/Italian festival + Polish gigs in September, they hired a stand-in guitarist by the name of Micheal Krumins (Green Carnation, Sirenia). This because of the arrival of Jon-Arne's first born and his priority to the newborn family.
During the Tick Tock Tour on September gigs, pre printed copies of the new album Missa Atropos are available to the present audience. And even before the official release of the new album (November 26) it's already number 1 charted at a Dutch prog site in October and November. The new album is intended to be another album in the series of films without pictures that they started back in 2007 with "Night". In other words a concept album intended to give the listener a chance to take some time off from the world. "Missa Atropos" is a concept taking the idea of Atropos, a Greek Goddess, updating it to the modern world where a man isolated himself from the world in a lighthouse to write a mass for Atropos, tasting true solitude as he does so. The story tells of what happens inside his head, his three attempts to write a mass, with the culmination of Missa Atropos being the final outcome.
December 2010 brought the news that they have licensed "Missa Atropos" to K-Scope in the UK. They will have the rights to the album worldwide. The new album was accompanied by a 12 gig tour in 5 different countries in January / February 2011. One of those countries was the UK where the London gig at Dingwalls 30th of January was recorded and released on 24th of October as the double live CD called London. A new album 'March Of Ghosts' will be released on Kscope in March 2012[36]
Current Lineup:
Guest Members:
Former Members:
Collaborations:
