Cohort Gaia

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.

An enchanting journey through nine responses to love, Banco de Gaia’s ninth studio album arrives at a time when the world needs it more than many of us may realise. Featuring special guest artists, from Pink Floyd’s Dick Parry, Zero 7’s Sophie Barker, The The’s James Eller and No-Man’s Tim Bowness, The 9th of Nine Hearts is a celebration of the spark in all of us: the concept of love itself. Fusing ambient, psychedelia, art rock and acid house, each track evolves naturally into the next, with love the starting point to them all.

"Ferengistan" is a term used in Central Asia to denote an imaginary place that represents the superficiality and materialism that too often characterize Western culture. So there's no real secret to the message behind this album by Toby Marks, aka Banco de Gaia. While the music is (thankfully) free of didactic lyrics, its instrumental tracks were written with serious matters of geopolitics in mind: one track has reference to a law recently passed in Mongolia, reinstating the use of surnames (a practice previously forbidden under Communist rule); the ironically titled "Harmonious G8" consists of eight overdubbed vocals, each an improvisation by a singer from one of the G8 nations; "White Man's Burden" requires little amplification. If you're not interested in the politics, you can just relax and enjoy the variously danceable and relaxing moods that Marks creates…

Apollo is Banco's first new studio album in 7 years and brings together heavy dub beats, powerful vocal arrays, and lilting melodies, drawing inspiration from both old and new schools of sonic artistry, and in doing so blending the subtle flavours of the act's historical sound with modern day techniques and ideas.
Apollo opens with the powerful and evocative Lamentations, featuring the ethereal vocals of Zhenia Mahdi-Nau, before slipping into Wimble Toot, whose initially stuttering drums and bass build into a relentless rhythm, peppered with reggae style horns and saxophone, nicely setting the scene for the foot stomping, dust raising, dancefloor rousing Eternal Sunshine…

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.