Homage to Catalonia
Glebe surface in early-2025 with Gaudí (Daggio Records). And listening to their new album we discover that it is the work of a new quintet led by guitarist Kieran Gunter and pianist Chris Bland.
Road to Wigan Pier
Bland hails from Wigan in Lancashire. The home of northern soul. Wigan is also renowned for its jazz big band traditions and annual festival.
Like Gunter, Bland is a graduate of Leeds College of Music (now Leeds Conservatoire).
Harpist, singer, lyricist Tara Minton guests on ‘Haflinger’ and ‘Ruby’ which is the longest album track – clocking in at over 10 minutes.
Also among the personnel is saxist/flautist Tom Smith so good on James Hudson’s Moonray this year cropping up on Gaudí track ‘L’Iseran.’
Impossible Gentlemen inspired
The co-leaders first met as students and shared a house on a street that had Glebe in its address – hence the combo’s name.
Gaudi is named after Antonin Gaudí (1852-1926) renowned for his unfinished Barcelona landmark at the church of la Sagrada Família.
Their album was recorded this year at Cowshed Studios in Wood Green and features compositions by both Gunter and Bland.
Keep the aspidistra flying
Glebe tunes on this introduction to their sound are inspired by family relatives, Viking ruins and, natch, en route to Las Ramblas, a homage to everyone’s favourite style defining Catalonian interpreted via the lens of their no nonsense Englishness.
‘But by degrees the flood of music drove all speculations out of his mind. It was as though it were a kind of liquid stuff that poured all over him and got mixed up with the sunlight that filtered through the leaves.’
George Orwell, 1984
- Hear Glebe eve-of-release at Crazy Coqs, Soho on 16 January
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