All music and lyrics have been written by Gabriela Martina. Exceptions are 'Alpha Bird's intro, 'Dreams’, a re-composition from 'Dreams' by The Cran­berries, and ‘Schiibestand’ by Markus Flückiger, arranged by Gabriela Martina. The spoken word section on ‘Full Circle’ is written by Khrys Williams. 
I recomposed Franz Schubert's 'Erlkönig' that is based on the poem of Goethe. The lyrics are about the current 'state of the United States; it speaks to the times we're currently finding ourselves in. The lyrical writing is influenced by Gertrude Stein.

Produced by Gabriela Martina
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Luis Bacque at BACQUE RECORDING New Jersey, NJ

KYLE MILES - bass 
VANCIL COOPER - drums 
JUSSI REIJONEN - guitar 
MAXIM LUBARSKY - piano 
BEN ROSENBLUM - accordion
GABRIELA MARTINA – voice & compositions

Guest musicians:
JASON PALMER - trumpet 
NASEEM ALATRASH – cello
KHRYS WILLIAMS – spoken word

The word 'States' has more than one meaning. State comes from the Latin status meaning
"condition of a country." The word 'States' mostly gets associated with the United States
of America. In what 'state of mind' are the 'States' currently finding themselves in? I will
explore
word play, political tension, different states of mind in order to express my
findings through sound.
Will sound alone be able to transform my intentions to an audience? I would like to go
back to the roots of music, which is simply voice and drums, and use these two textures
as the core elements for my compositions. I will take advantage of the fact that a vocalist
can make music with words, but I will pay just as much attention to work on the playful
side of writing compositions with words that have no meaning (gibberish).
Where and what will our States be in 2022? 2024? In 2030?

6 Dreams Teaser

Gabriela Martina is a vocalist, composer, and bandleader who grew up in Switzerland. She spent 13 years living and working in the US (Boston & New York) learning from the people who made Jazz (among many other styles of music originating from the US) as important of an art form as it is today. 

Gabriela grew up yodeling with her family and had performances as early as the age of 4. Being raised on a beautiful farm in the heart of Switzerland surrounded by a musical family has influenced her musical path strongly. Martina’s upcoming album ‘Homage to Grämlis’ (2022, delayed by Corona 2020), is a tribute to the farm in the Swiss Alps where she was raised. In spring of 2019 she won the LABgrant from The Boston Foundation, which gave her great support with her album production of ‘Homage to Grämlis’.

In the fall of 2021, Martina had the great honor to receive the arts & culture award 2020 from the arts and culture commission Horw, her home town in Switzerland. This grant will further help the album release tour with ‘Homage to Grämlis’, that is now rescheduled for March 2022. She also received the DIPLÔME DE MÉDAILLE DE VERMEIL from the lauréats Arts-Sciences-Lettres, 2020, in Paris (France). 

During the time of the pandemic, Gabriela Martina has composed nine new compositions for my newest album called ‘STATES’. The word ‘States’ refers to the United States of America, but also to a ‘state of mind’, or simply a ‘state of being’. Sounds created with your voice and percussion/drumming as the first human musical elements. I have used them as the core elements for my compositions. Her works include word play, music with words (spoken word) and words with no meaning (gibberish). The release for this album is slated for fall 2022.

Released in 2016 with a four-star review from DownBeat, her album, No White Shoes, represented a major step in the singer’s sojourn as a 21st-century musician. Martina had the opportunity to perform and collaborate with heavyweights like Meshell Ndegeocello, Jack DeJohnette, and Angelique Kidjo. She recorded with veteran drummer J.R. Robinson and was a semi-finalist in the Shure Voice Competition at the 2009 Montreux Jazz Festival, performing with guitarist Lee Ritenour’s band. Martina released a critically hailed EP in 2010, Curiosity, which included her original song “Ain’t Nobody,” a finalist in the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers Foundation Young Jazz Composer Awards in 2012. Martina owns her own booking agency called Red Velvet Sounds and is cofounder and curator of the free improv concert series In Momentum.

In June 2019 she took part in the Central Swiss Yodeling Festival and graduated with top marks. She has also performed in concert venues such as the Berklee Performance Center, Jordan Hall, International Tennis Hall of Fame, State House of Flags and the Scullers Jazz Club. Gabriela has a bachelor's degree from Berklee College of Music and a master's degree from the New England Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Donna McElroy, Jason Moran, Cecil McBee, Miguel Zenon, Frank Carlberg, Dominique Eade, Ken Schaphorst, Jerry Bergonzi among many others. 

Martina is passionate about learning more about other cultures, helping to develop a sense for community, and fighting inequality and racism. She is a strong advocate of causes that promote equal human rights independent of religious or political affiliations. From 2009 to 2010, Martina was the founder and president of the Cultural Leaders Club at Berklee College of Music, where students investigated causes and effects in terms of race, gender, and ethnicity issues. Sonic Relief, which Martina cofounded, was awarded the Berklee Urban Service Award 2016 for using music to aid people in need, such as organizing a humanitarian fundraising concert for Syrian refugees, featuring Simon Shaheen and the Lee Swensen Katz Trio in December 2015.

Gabriela Martina has many hidden talents, one of them being cooking which she clearly proved through her cookbook she wrote during the desperate times of the pandemic 2020/2021 called ‘Dinner with My Neighbor’. Read more about her and her vision on her website: https://www.gabrielamartina.com/ 

Gabriela Martina holds a Bachelor’s degree from Berklee College of Music and a Master’s Degree from the New England Conservatory of Music.