The GAUDI KOSMISCHES TRIO is a new recording and live project led by Grammy-Award nominee, producer, and solo artist Gaudi, featuring Colin Edwin of Porcupine Tree on bass and De Palma on guitars. A global favourite in the psychedelic-dub and electronica scenes, Gaudi continues to feed his loyal fanbase with his infectious bass-driven grooves and innovative production techniques.
An up-tempo formula of retro beats and analogue sounds, debut album ‘Torpedo Forward’, released 3rd October via Curious Music, is an exciting fusion of Krautrock and psychedelic dub, recorded using vintage studio equipment and analogue original instrumentation from the 70s and 80s, mixed and produced by Gaudi at his Metatron Studio in London.
The trio has been performing live and recording together since Gaudi’s 2016 album ‘Magnetic’ and subsequent worldwide tour. Partly inspired by their Magnetic live performances together, the GAUDI KOSMISCHES TRIO sound metamorphosised from their live shows and such was the response to the music, the three musicians decided to make an album together, creating an accurate snapshot of where their interests and influences collide.
Over a period of time, the music developed considerably. The idea of just an archival type recording went much further than expected, once they decided to enter the studio and start composing new tracks, evolving the sound into a much more complex sonic territory and consolidate a new original cross-over formula of “Krautrock meets Dub”.
In keeping with the exploratory nature of the recording process, there is no specific artist influence to the GAUDI KOSMISCHES TRIO, but more a specific era and its freeform of interpreting what music means. From the motorik rhythms of album opener ‘Owa Owa Owa’ and automated soundscapes of ‘Torpedo Forward’, to the lurching, psychedelic avant rock feel to ‘Kufu’, and distinctive and quirky ‘In A Modern World’, there’s an obvious and undeniable pathway from the classic 70s Krautrock movement in Germany, mixed with an overall uptempo electronic sensibility and a few slices of intentionally playful psychedelia thrown in for good measure.
“The recording process was very spontaneous and pretty straight-forward, starting in June 2023 and finishing in September 2023, then it took 4 more months for me to produce it, arrange it and mix it, as it has been made with an “old-school” approach, using traditional studio techniques, such as recording some of the elements on a reel-to-reel tape recorder and mixing it live on my 32 channel analogue mixing console,” says Gaudi who plays synthesisers, theremin alongside vocoder and voice on ‘Torpedo Forward’.
Each track started with the trio jamming in the studio for days while recording all the sessions and subsequently capturing the best moments. Once these were selected, the trio then transformed what they had into individual tracks. Each track across the album was created using the same process except ‘Omoka’, which was mixed on a plane at 38,000 feet of altitude during Gaudi’s tour of Australasia last January – named after the small island in the South Pacific Ocean the plane was flying over at the time.