THE JOURNEY
Gabriela is an Argentine singer-songwriter who, as the daughter of a diplomat, spent her formative years in Portugal, Turkey, Ireland, Brazil, and Argentina. In the late sixties, she stepped into adulthood in Paris, where she worked in theater and began her musical career. The diverse cultural and musical influences she absorbed during her childhood travels, from Latin American song traditions to Irish ballads, as well as her immersion in the era’s musical culture—including artists such as The Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Led Zeppelin, and Bob Dylan—paved the way to her unique musical style, which gradually developed and was shaped through her songwriting and performances in her native Spanish.
She returned to Argentina in the early seventies, pursuing her musical career and inadvertently becoming the first female figure to step onto the Argentine progressive rock stage. In 1973 she released her first recording, Gabriela, and participated in the Argentine cult classic film Hasta que se ponga el sol.
By the late seventies, Gabriela had taken residence in Los Angeles, where her distinctive voice and songwriting caught the attention of several influential musicians in the area. For her next recording, Ubalé (1980), she selected a group of very special players, blending the magic of the West Coast sound with her original tunes sung in Spanish, once again breaking new ground with this kind of fusion. She was joined by figures such as Alex Acuña, David Lindley, George Doering, and Robben Ford, as well as by Argentine musicians such as Pino Marrone, León Gieco, and Gustavo Santaolalla.
In 1983 Gabriela traveled to Sweden to make her third album, Friendship, sung in English, produced and arranged by Daniel Goldberg, recorded with a group of Swedish musicians, and released exclusively in Scandinavia.
By the late eighties, her music took a new, more experimental direction, reflected in her following album, Altas Planicies (1990), which lived outside the mainstream of rock, pop, and folk. These poetic and elegantly crafted songs feature unusual instrumentation, influenced by a minimalist aesthetic and a South American spirit. Altas Planicies also brought together musicians such as Dino Saluzzi, David Lindley, Alex Acuña, Pino Marrone, and Pedro Aznar.
In 1996 Gabriela entered a new chapter in her artistic journey with the inspired collaboration with jazz guitarist and composer Bill Frisell, which Acoustic Guitar Magazine described as “one of the ’90s most fortuitous and memorable musical pairings.” Enchanted by Gabriela’s music, Frisell passed it on to his producer, Lee Townsend, who signed her for the Songline/Intuition series and produced her fifth album, Detrás del Sol, featuring Bill Frisell and Gabriela on guitars, Alex Acuña on drums, Eyvind Kang on violin, Rob Burger on accordion, and Bill Douglass on bass. This album was highly praised by the American and German press, won the Deutschen Schallplattenkritik Award in 1997, and was later chosen by Acoustic Guitar magazine editor Scott Nygaard as one of the ten best albums of the decade.
Her sixth album, the cinematic Viento Rojo, was also recorded and produced by Lee Townsend for the Songline/Intuition series in the winter of 1999. Gabriela became interested in creating a drumless, floating sound, which she explores here. Viento Rojo was arranged by Bill Frisell for cello (Eric Longsworth), violin (Jenny Scheinman), acoustic bass (Viktor Krauss), and guitars (Bill Frisell and Gabriela). The album was widely praised and chosen by L.A.’s KPFK radio show Global Village as one of the three best recordings of 1999.
El Viaje, the final album in her trilogy with Bill Frisell and Lee Townsend for the Intuition label, is a richly textured work filled with deep yearning and her ever-evocative imagery. Produced by Lee Townsend and Tucker Martine in Seattle, it features Bill Frisell and Gabriela on guitars, Viktor Krauss on bass, Eyvind Kang on viola, Steve Moore on keyboards, and Tucker Martine on percussion. Released in Europe through the German label Intuition in August 2006, it received great reviews and climbed to number 9 on the European World Music Charts.
Gabriela currently lives in Argentina and has recently released her autobiography, Las mil vidas de Gabriela (The Thousand Lives of Gabriela), a book that reflects not only her music but a long and abundant life experience and was chosen by the prestigious Argentine newspaper, eldiarioAR, as one of the twelve best books of 2023.
Gabriela has recently co-produced her upcoming eighth album with longtime friend and collaborator Viktor Krauss, an exquisite bass player, arranger, and composer. This Buenos Aires/Nashville remote collaboration takes a distinctive experimental direction, reflecting her constant reinvention and evolving artistic vision, filled with her usual emotion and new unexplored landscapes. It also comprises exclusive guests and instrumentalists, including Viktor Krauss himself, dobro visionary Jerry Douglas, avant-garde Scottish Celtic harpist Maeve Gilchrist, violinist Stuart Duncan, experimental sound artist and voice-driven Argentine composer Morita Vargas and guitar player Horacio Pozzo.
