Gaia”s Web

The first album to bring together all of Fanny Mendelssohn’s four piano sonatas, written over the course of almost 20 years, and including the ‘Easter Sonata’ rediscovered in 2010.

After the disaster of “Big Men Cry” and a traumatic American tour with Moby, it was time for Banco de Gaia to take stock. A move to Somerset allowed him to set up a new studio, and all the label intrigue from the last release drove him to find a new American partner in Six Degrees, and to set up his own label, Disco Gecko Recordings, for European releases.

Formed in 2019, award-winning violin and cello duo GAIA have rapidly won plaudits for their pioneering programming and bold and daring performances.Their debut album release features three works specially written for the duo, and also bears testimony to their championing of works by underrepresented and overlooked voices from classical music’s past.

The fifth installment of the Rewritten Histories series focuses on remixes and alternative mixes of Banco tunes recorded between 2017 and 2022. It features: remixes created for the 20th anniversary editions of "Big Men Cry", "The Magical Sounds of Banco de Gaia" and "Igizeh"; the stunning re-works of "Heliopolos" and "Obsidian" by Framewerk and their Capital Heaven crew; plus two brand new remixes of "Fake it til you make it" by long-time collaborator Andy Guthrie under his 100th Monkey guise.

A collection of mixes and remixes of early Banco de Gaia tracks.
Inspired to enter the field of electronic music by Britain's acid house explosion of the late '80s, Toby Marks took quite a different spin on electronica with his recordings as Banco de Gaia, introducing elements of Eastern and Arabic music, sampling similarly exotic sources, and tying the whole to ambient-dub rhythms. Marks began releasing cassette-only albums in the early '90s, distributed through a network of clubs and artists known as Planet Dog. When Planet Dog became a record label as well (later the home of Eat Static and Timeshard), Banco de Gaia debuted on disc with the Desert Wind EP, released in November 1993.

30 Times Around the Sun is a compilation of tracks drawn from the last 30 years of Banco de Gaia, with every track written, recorded or released in different years during that time. In chronological order, the compilation begins with an early experimental live track and ends with Banco’s latest work. The collection spans house, techno, breakbeats, world music, ambient, dub and avant garde, showcasing the wide range of Toby’s (and Andy’s) musical interests. Various guest musicians are featured as well as a variety of remixers who further extend the styles on offer. A lot of ground is covered over the 30 years but there is a consistency at it’s heart, reflecting Toby’s ongoing pursuit of a perfect musical expression whatever the style.

Armin van Buuren is one of the most respected and legendary names in trance, but he still takes plenty of flak. A constant debate among trance fans and Armin fans a like is whether he is "still trance" or "abandoning trance". Over the past few years, Armin has expanded his repertoire a lot, experimenting with all sorts of musical styles. In that time he has given the detractors some ammo, even while putting out his banging club mixes. However, today he is gifting an album that is something of a love letter to trance, and to his true fans…

The immediacy and power of La Gaia Scienza and Paolo Beschi takes your breath away. The sound of these outstanding musicians on original instruments is amazing and appealing, the phrasing and the interaction are exemplary, every note and every bar has been rethought. Chamber music full of contrasts and emotions. Adventurous souls should not hesitate, key works by Brahms, Haydn, Schubert and Schumann have never been heard like this before and as a special encore, highlights from Bach’s Cello Solo Suites can be heard. Paolo Beschi (co-founder and cellist of ‘Il Giardino Armonico’) conducts the ensemble ‘La Gaia Scienza’ with pianist Federica Valli and violinist Stefano Barneschi. This group gives the world groundbreaking reinterpretations of romantic and baroque works. Pizzicato writes: ‘played vitally and pulsating, with feeling but without pathos.’