Hallowbaloo Preview

Whether it’s a successful music career that’s spanned 30 years and included multiple Top 10 hits or the ability to draw a crowd of 350,000 to the Coliseum in Rome in 2004 (yes, 350,000! - not a typo), GAUDI has proven himself to be one of the most accomplished artists in the international music arena. Add to that being asked to remix Bob Marley’s original recordings, as well as works of Pakistani superstar Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and you have an artist whose debut Oahu performance is worth getting excited about, very excited.

First and foremost, GAUDI is world-class musician with a range that runs the gamut from hip-hop to reggae to Persian chanting to dub alchemy. He initially gained notoriety in the 80s as a producer and later, with his first solo album, Basta Poco (Polygram 1990), which earned him the award of “Best Italian Newcoming Artist 1991.” That album included the single, “1990 Anni Fa,” that scored the promotional coup of being banned by the Vatican due to its ‘sensitive content.’ In support of that album, GAUDI toured relentlessly for four years and performed with a cavalcade of reggae greats: Ziggy Marley, Third World, Sister Carol, I Threes, Sweetie Irie, Half Pint, The Wailers, Yellowman, Freddie McGregor, Mutabaruka, Maxi Priest, Shinehead and Jimmy Cliff.

Upon moving to England in 1995, GAUDI continued to expand his boundaries becoming enthralled with the endless possibilities presented by electronic music, specifically the ability to distort conventional sounds into mesmerizing melodies. In 1996, GAUDI’s remix of Cool Jack's “ Jus' come” reached No.1 on the UK dance chart. He soon became one of the most sought after electronic producers on the planet. Since that time, his passion for music and musical creativity has not diminished in the least bit. Year in and year out he has thrown himself into a myriad of projects and continued to produce stellar results. 

More recent highlights include his working with Michael Moglia, inventor of the Fire Organ, to create the composition, ‘Elemental,’ for their landmark show at the Coliseum in Rome. When they unveiled the composition at that event, they were greeted by an estimated crowd of 350,000 people – a monumental feat and a testament to the great success enjoyed by GAUDI over an extended period of time. The night was captured on video, and while it’s far from an HD recording, it still qualifies as a must-see and can be viewed by clicking the following link: Elemental at the Coliseum in Rome, Italy.

Another triumph demanding attention is GAUDI’s Dub Qawwali album released in 2007 (Six Degrees Records). Featuring the iconic, transcendent vocals of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the album received massive critical acclaim internationally reaching no.2 in iTunes USA Chart, no.4 in the UK and was the no.1 seller in Amazon.com’s Electronic Music section for a period. It also earned GAUDI a nomination for the BBC's World Music Awards 2008.
 
At Hallowbaloo 2011, you’ll have not one but two opportunities to witness GAUDI’s wizardry. First, at the Saturday, October 29th Hallowbaloo street festival on the Big Medicine Stage and later that evening in a club environment, namely Soho Mixed Media Bar. If the latter is your chosen destination, don’t fret about him running out of steam. When it comes to producing soul nourishing music, GAUDI hasn’t missed a beat in over 25 years, and he once performed for nine straight hours at a never ending extravaganza in Brazil. His pending Honolulu arrival is yet another reason why Hallowbaloo weekend can’t come soon enough!

Interview & Additional Biographical Insights

The following article is from one of our favorite music journalists in Hawai‘i, Jon Woodhouse, courtesy of The Maui News.

dub wizard GAUDI

April 21, 2011

Italian dub alchemist GAUDI occupies a unique niche in the world of dance-club culture. A classically trained pianist infused with a passion for reggae and electronica, GAUDI concocts inspired sonic potions to uplift spirits, employing all manner of keyboards, percussion, tape echoes and even an ephemeral sounding theremin (invented by a Russian physicist in 1920).

Acclaimed around the globe, he's performed before an international audience of around 350,000 in Rome's ancient Coliseum, and at a festival in Brazil that kept the dance floor jammed for nine hours.

And as an ace remixer, he's had the honor of reinterpreting the music of two masters of their genres - Jamaican reggae's Bob Marley and Pakistani Qawwali legend Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

Ready to ignite Casanova on Saturday evening, GAUDI indicates that stylistically he's "a bit of a wild horse."

Calling from his London home he explains, "My love for music started with reggae dub, experimental electronica and influences from around the globe. That's my trademark. It's music for the world.

"I'm not a DJ at all; I don't know how to mix," he continues. "In my live performances I use CD players with things that I recorded in the studio like a drum, and I'll play a bass line live on top and do all my live dubbing and manipulation and vocals through effects. Every time it's completely different. I have a wide canvas where I know more or less what kind of journey I'll create, but I don't know what tracks and their order."

GAUDI's professional career began in 1981 in Italy as a keyboard player in the new-wave band Wild Planet. Two years later he joined the electronica outfit Red Light, and later branched into reggae with Bamboo Company.

After moving to London, he began touring alongside reggae artists like The Wailers, Jimmy Cliff, Third World and Ziggy Marley.

In 1999, GAUDI released the album "Earthbound," featuring a mix of influences ranging from Indian ragas to African chanting and Italian traditional melodies, unified by a reggae/dub foundation. The 39 musicians collaborating on the record included Jamaica's General Levy and Indian singers Kiren Sambhi and Sonal Varsani.

A few years later, his album "Bass, Sweat & Tears" was hailed as "a strong contender for best global/electronica fusion album of 2004." It included a track featuring the Fire Organ, a massive, one-of-a-kind instrument that transforms the heat of flames into sound energy.

It was a collaboration with the unique instrument's French inventor, Michel Moglia, which led to GAUDI's performance at The Coliseum in Rome debuting the mind-blowing "Elemental," an "opera of electricity" for Fire Organ and Theramin. (www.myspace.com/video/gaudimusic/gaudi-michel-moglia-present-elemental/28950764).

A crowning achievement in his career arrived with an invitation to remix Bob Marley's classic "Soul Shake Down Party."

"I had a goal to work on some Bob Marley tracks and that first happened in 2003," he explains. "And then in 2008 I worked with reggae legend Lee Scratch Perry on three tracks that he wrote for Bob Marley, 'Kaya,' 'Funky Reggae Party' and 'Sun is Shining.' It was a big thing for me to work on original Bob Marley tracks with the person that had been in the studio with him."

The next honor for him involved working with the amazing vocals of Pakistan's premier ambassador of sacred Qawwali music, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, who has been dubbed "the Bob Marley of Pakistan."

Khan's previous Western collaborators have included Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder and Peter Gabriel. GAUDI's album project "Dub Qawwali" earned him a nomination for the BBC's World Music Award in 2008.

"I had the honor of being selected by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's record company and his wife," he reports. "They gave me full access to his back catalogue, and I picked my favorite 10 tracks. Each track was about 35 minutes long and I had to reduce them to four or five minutes. I tried not to produce a disaster and keep the integrity of the original source."

So did he have any reservations about mixing dub and devotional Qawwali?

"I think the two styles are born to be together," he says. "Reggae has an offbeat, and some types of music from India and Pakistan work pretty much the same using the tabla as reference. No one had matched the two elements before. I was worried. I knew it was not going to be as good as the original because we're talking masterpiece. I was paying tribute, and I had very good feedback."

A calabashmusic review of the Khan project praised: "GAUDI has sensitively created a set of completely new tracks, crafted around Nusrat's uniquely beautiful melodies and universal themes of spirituality, peace and love, creating a sound that is uplifting, haunting, and moving."

You can hear/see the beautiful GAUDI/Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan track "Bethe Bethe Kese Kese" on YouTube.

GAUDI's remixing talents have been utilized by a variety of artists from Scottish rockers Simple Minds and Indian virtuoso percussionist Trilok Gurtu to U.K. trip-hop duo Lamb and American hip-hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa.

Recently he worked on music by the chart-topping project Metallic Spheres, which teamed Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour with The Orb. And there's an ongoing collaboration, remixing classic '60s tunes from Jamaica's Trojan Records, including tracks by Desmond Dekker, The Upsetters and Bob & Marcia.

"I was approached by Trojan to remix part of the back catalogue, working with the electronic team The Orb," he notes. "The album is called 'Screen' and it will be out in September."

Visiting our shores in January, he found a kindred spirit in Marty Dread. The two musicians have just collaborated on a couple of tracks, including a reggae updating of Edie Brickell's hit "What I Am."

"We clicked immediately and I had in mind the track 'What I Am,'" says GAUDI. "He got very excited and I got excited. We flew to Honolulu and recorded with a bass player and guitarist, and for the brass melody he contacted the (Jamaican ska band legends) Skatalites in New York and I finished it in London, and now the Mad Professor will do a remix."

An EP will see release shortly with the addition of a prophetic track called "Nuclear Ting," prompted by the unfolding tragedy at Fukushima.

"I felt it was something I should touch on after the nuclear crisis started getting out of hand," said Marty before heading off to a festival in Brazil with the Mad Professor. "Q103 has 'What I Am,' in high rotation and they're getting a lot of requests for it." Marty will join GAUDI as a guest on Saturday.

A regular at the Glastonbury Festival, GAUDI has thrilled audiences around the world including at Denmark's Roskilde, the Reggae Sunsplash, Australia's Earthcore and Brazil's Universo Paralello.

"I was at a festival in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and it was the longest gig of my life, nine hours on stage," he recalls. "I closed the festival and they wouldn't let me go. The Brazilians know how to party."