Welcome Home - Vinyle Vert

Description

Born with perfect pitch, Gareth Donkin was already fanatically obsessed with jazz piano and drumming before the age of 12. In high school, he began playing DJ, learning DIY recording, and sampling. By the time he headed to the Leeds Conservatoire to earn a degree in production, he was already writing and recording his own tracks at home. Written and recorded in a series of studios in England and France, Gareth's self-produced debut album, Welcome Home, showcases the remarkable blend of instrumental virtuosity and emotional intuition of the 23-year-old, combining highly sophisticated melodic and harmonic craftsmanship with moving explorations of nostalgia, desire, and determination. The songs on this album draw inspiration from soul, funk, pop, yacht rock, hip-hop, jazz, and even bossa nova, occasionally evoking Michael Jackson, Bill Evans, George Benson, and Jamiroquai. On Welcome Home, Donkin layers instruments one after another, in the best tradition of one-man bands like Prince or Stevie Wonder. The final result is an emotional work, both cerebral and muscular, a masterful self-portrait of a young artist discovering himself—and his sound—one song at a time.