Travis’s second solo EP, Silly String, is now available! It’s a bit more adventurous and synth-driven than his first EP, and I had the pleasure of engineer and re-amping guitars and bass on the first two tracks, in addition to providing compositional feedback along the way. Greg Loman of TGC & Funk Ark performed the guitars and bass on the first track. The great Pete Peterson was responsible for all of the synths and the EP’s mix, in addition to the bass on the final track. Give it a listen below or purchase a copy at Bandcamp:
As usual, Travis has posted a tracking video for all but the last song (which can be seen here):
I will be playing 2 gigs in Chicago this month. Neither is with The Gabriel Construct, but both are alongside members of TGC’s new live lineup. These will be the first gigs I’ve played in nearly 2 years!
1) I will be performing keyboards and backing vocals with a talented songwriter named Sacha Mullin (CHEER-ACCIDENT, Lovely Little Girls) on Saturday 6/13 at The Burlington (9pm) (see Facebook event). Give a listen to Sacha’s debut record, Whelm – we will be performing three songs from that record and two new songs. Guzzlemug is the backing band on the album, but guitarist Shane Prendiville (also of Murmur) is the only member of Guzzlemug that will be performing with us. Shane also recently joined The Gabriel Construct’s live lineup!
The band will be filled out by C-A / LLG members Cory Bengsten on bass (though he plays sax for C-A and LLG) and L. Wyatt on vocals, in addition to drummer Ben Scholz of The Elec Tet.
2) I will be playing keys on a few songs for CHEER-ACCIDENT at Martyrs on June 19th (also 9pm) (see Facebook event). Their bass player, Dante Kester, has also joined TGC’s live lineup. Sophia Uddin will be performing violin with them, as well! Cheer-Accident have been around since the early ’80s and have released somewhere around 18 records in multiple styles.
The show is a CD release party for District 97, who served as John Wetton’s backing band for a ’70s King Crimson cover tour. It is rounded out by Lovely Little Girls, who will perform a small set in the middle of C-A’s set.
So there you have it – two gigs which I am honored to be a part of, and two new member announcements for TGC’s live band. Come out and see us in action!
I apologize for the long silence. I think it’s about time for some news. Here is the current studio lineup of The Gabriel Construct:
Gabriel Riccio: Vocals, Electric Keyboards
Ben Rachbach: Acoustic Piano Jeffrey Siegfried: Saxophones
Sophia Uddin: Violin Greg Loman: Guitar
Tom Murphy: Bass Travis Orbin: Drums
Ever since just before Interior City came out, we’ve been very slowly recording a new TGC record. The working title is ‘Spinning Webs’, but that is subject to change, as I haven’t written any lyrics yet. This time around, all of the drums are being tracked out of Travis’s home studio and the bulk of the other instruments are being recorded with Gabriel’s home studio. We’ve been taking our time on this record, so it may still be quite a while before it comes out. I apologize for the long wait – thank you all for your patience and support!
Travis, Tom and Sophia are all returning from the Interior City lineup. As for the new additions, Greg is a fantastic guitar player who plays with The Funk Ark, in addition to teaching music to wounded veterans with Musicorps to help them rehabilitate. Jeff is a saxophone graduate student from Northwestern University. Ben is an old friend of mine who helped me bring some of the music on Interior City and the upcoming record to life for the first time when we were in college – it seemed only natural to have him return for this record.
In addition to new TGC material, we’ve also been recording a number of side projects, mostly of a more lighthearted nature. Tracks from two of these projects are currently in the mastering phase, so you will hear them soon! They will be a good indicator of what to expect from this group of players and from our new home-oriented production approach.
I’ve decided to announce this now since I’m also currently assembling a live lineup for TGC, and I didn’t want to create any confusion by announcing both lineups simultaneously. Jeff and Sophia will also appear in the live lineup, but the rest of the players will be new!
I’ve been working with Trey Gunn (King Crimson) on a score book of his music for a while now. You may have seen the transcription I did of King Crimson’s ‘The ConstruKction of Light’ – Trey found that transcription and was so impressed that he hired me to do a full book. Finally, after a very successful crowdfunding campaign and a whole lot of work, the book is complete and available for purchase! This sheet music should be interesting to any musician who wants to learn some cool rhythmic ideas, so even if you’re not a tapping player, this will still have something to offer. Since Trey’s music frequently contains multiple simultaneous time signatures and symmetrical scales, there were many challenges to notating this music, and the result was quite unusual! Here are some sample pages, the first of which showcases the multi-time signature technique: Kuma Sirrah The ConstruKction of Light
The book also contains anecdotes and playing instructions from Trey on every song. Purchase the book at Trey Gunn’s bandcamp page.
Travis Orbin’s first solo EP is out now! Travis was assisted by guitarist Adam Edgemont of Dyed in Grey in realizing this mind-bending take on modern instrumental progressive metal. Pick up a copy at Bandcamp or give it a stream:
Travis has posted a big tracking video for all but the first song, so check that out:
I sang on the new Fountainhead EP, ‘Reverse Engineering’ (coming August 5, 2016). Fountainhead is the alter-ego of guitar player/composer/producer Tom Geldschläger. Here’s his official announcement:
I´m very happy to anounce that one of my favorite “new” artists, Gabriel Riccio of The Gabriel Construct will appear as guest-vocalist on the upcoming Fountainhead-EP, called “Reverse Engineering”. Gabriel is an amazingly talented multi-instrumentalist, composer and singer and being the huge TGC-Fan that I am, I´m proud to have his unique skills and personality on the new record.
Currently operating from his studio in Berlin, Germany, Tom has appeared on countless records as a guitar player, arranger, producer, mixing-engineer and sometimes keyboard player. He’s recorded and toured with artists like Obscura, Ray Riendeau, Marco Minnemann, Jimmy Pitts, Hannes Grossmann, Christian Münzner, Nader Sadek, etc. and has been featured in various magazines around the globe, most recently “gitar plus” and “gitarre & bass”.
‘Reverse Engineering’ also features bassists Ray Riendeau (Halford, James Labrie), Jacob Schmidt (Defeated Sanity) and Linus Klausenitzer (Obscura, Alkaloid), drummers Derek Roddy (Nile) and Yatziv Caspi (Orphaned Land), and Matthias Preisinger (Von Eden) on keyboards, strings, and harp.
Here’s Tom’s playthrough video of the title track. I sang the choruses on this one (as well as the coda, which is not included in this video), while Dan Sander provides the screams:
Here’s an isolated snippet of the vocals & keyboards from the final chorus:
Here’s the video for the first single from the EP. This is the instrumental version, but I believe my vocal version will appear on a future release.
Or check out a video from Fountainhead’s first EP, ‘Fear is the Enemy’:
Here’s a new video of a piece I wrote for solo saxophone in 2009.
‘Winding through Angles’ for solo alto saxophone was composed in the spring semester 2009 under the tutelage of Gerald Levinson. It is based on the ‘five note’ exercises – at any given point, the piece is centered around a group of five chromatic pitch classes contained in a major third. It modulates between different groups of five notes until all twelve pitch classes are used in the work. The first movement is a slow build, while the second movement is an exercise in frustration, simultaneously angry and mocking itself. I chose the saxophone because it is an instrument capable of great expression, largely underused in the classical world.
The piece was written for and premiered by Soren Larsen, who later performed all of the saxophone parts on Interior City. It was then performed by his teacher, who created this video. You can hear Soren’s debut performance of the piece here for comparison:
Sheet music for this piece can be purchased here or viewed below:
[gview file=”https://thegabrielconstruct.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Winding-Through-Angles-Full-Score.pdf”]
I have been invited to contribute to the blog Art Rock Tendencies, run by Darin Tambascio of progressive sludge metal band National Sunday Law. I am currently writing a series of articles entitled ‘Rock Meets Classical’, which you can read below:
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