Gabriel Lucas Riccio is a Maryland vocalist, composer, multi-instrumentalist, producer, transcriber, and engraver. His debut album, ‘Interior City’ by The Gabriel Construct, is a dark and atmospheric concept album featuring Periphery’s ex-rhythm section – drummer Travis Orbin (currently of Darkest Hour) and bassist Tom Murphy. The album unites players from rock, metal, classical, and jazz backgrounds to create a sound which incorporates influences from a wide variety of genres, including progressive rock, 20th century classical music, extreme metal, and more. The album’s densely layered vocal harmonies, distorted pianos, dissonant chords, and complex rhythms envelop the listener in a hallucinatory wall of sound.
He has created 3 sheet music books for King Crimson and friends in collaboration with Warr guitarist Trey Gunn, who played with Robert Fripp from 1988-2003. His most recent book, ‘The Discipline Era Transcriptions‘, features full sheet music and tabs for all 3 of the band’s 80’s records. He worked with Tony Levin (King Crimson, Peter Gabriel, Liquid Tension Experiment) and Markus Reuter to create a book for their trio Stick Men. He worked with copyist/orchestrator/film composer Jeremy Borum on sheet music for Beach House, City & Colour, Neko Case, David Foster, Stewart Copeland, and more. He has also done freelance sheet music work for Hal Leonard, where he worked on Disney music and the Book of Mormon.
Gabriel graduated from Swarthmore College with a Bachelor of Arts in Music in 2011, where he won the Melvin B. Troy Prize in composition after studying under Gerald Levinson. Levinson was a student of George Crumb and Olivier Messiaen, both of whom became large influences on ‘Interior City’. Gabriel’s rock background combined with classical training provide him with a unique perspective which allows him to create a sound entirely his own.
Gabriel brought Interior City to the stage during his time in Chicago, where he also played with Pavlov3, CHEER-ACCIDENT, and singer Sacha Mullin. His live band shared bills with Renaissance, John 5, Kayo Dot, Brand X, John Zorn’s Simulacrum, Soft Machine, and more. He has since moved to Baltimore and is currently working on multiple new studio records.
Press Quotes
“Interior City is a soaring, melodic creation that makes me want to turn it up and drown out everyone else. Unless they shut up and listen quietly.” – Leyla Ford, Metalsucks (11/21/2013)
“There are still bands who truly seek to make music progress. The Gabriel Construct is one of them, and such a deep and thorough composition doesn’t come every year or every two year. It’s a life’s work, and we’ll be incredibly lucky if we ever see another release of the same quality from the same people.” – Dave Tremblay, Heavy Blog Is Heavy (11/25/2015)
“This album is as good as it gets – unrivaled prog perfection. That’s all you need to know. You owe it to yourself to try it out.” – David Rodriguez, Everything Is Noise (4/25/2020)
“If I would have to decide about the best progressive rock album of the last 10 years, The Gabriel Construct’s “Interior City” could be my choice… Everything about this record is breathtaking.” – It Djents (4/22/16)
“It is extremely rare that I encounter an album that totally engrosses me in the sense that I can just sit and listen to it with nothing else. In fact, [Interior City] compels me to do this… I foresee this being the album of the year for me. 10/10” – Matt Ward, Metal for Music Majors (07/27/2013)
“The album musically narrates Gabriel’s dual existence, the dark side and the light side. To escape the outside world, he retreats to an internal phantom metropolis.” – Marcel Hidalgo, Huffington Post (07/30/2013)
“Gabriel Riccio may have only graduated from college two years ago, but his compositional prowess—which is in full-force on his debut LP, Interior City, is of the strength that one would expect from a musician of a much better age pedigree.” – Brice Ezell, Sea of Tranquility (07/16/2013)
“…a progressive rock project that makes more famous collectives such as Trans-Siberian Orchestra sound like kids playing toy instruments.” – Music Emissions (07/27/2013)
“Eerie, distorted piano progressions, dissonance, layered harmonic vocals, and a swarm of complex rhythms create a wall of sound that encompasses us like a single-person space craft about to blast us back home… I would say [the album is a] masterpiece.” – Joshua Smotherman, Middle Tennessee Music
“And then along comes an album so deep, so personal, riffs that mirror your deepest darkest worries, words that eloquently phrase your underlying angst, notes that hit the perfect highs and the perfect lows at the perfect moments. Interior City by The Gabriel Construct is all that and much more.” – Karan Khurana, Instantfilter (06/12/2013)