Ground-breaking percussive ambient recordings to induce altered states of consciousness through ecstatic dance. Gabrielle Roth & The Mirrors were a world unto themselves.

Despite featuring an extraordinary cast of musicians (with credits including Sun Ra, Pharoah Sanders, Miles Davis, Santana, Stevie Wonder, Milton Nascimento and much more) and selling hundreds of thousands of albums, the music of Gabrielle Roth & The Mirrors remains largely unheard beyond their sphere. Conceived as live, improvised soundtracks to Roth’s transcendental dance workshops, musical acclaim was never on the agenda.

Instead, for a passionate dancer and spiritual polyglot like Gabrielle Roth, movement was a means through which to channel a wide spectrum of teaching, from experimental psychology to psychedelic counter-culture. It was from this heady mix that she devised a movement meditation known as 5Rhythms, which came to define her life’s work.

As “guide and catalyst”, Roth would dance to inspire the percussion-led instrumentals that would in turn fuel her 5Rhythms workshops, stimulating a secular form of ecstatic dance with roots in Native American shamanic traditions, Afro-Brazilian Candomblé and Yoruba drumming.

Using anything from a Sioux pony drum to East African kihembe and Japanese Kabuki drums, Gabrielle’s lawyer-turned-drummer husband Robert Ansell set the foundational rhythms for The Mirrors’ recordings, each of which would then feature a rotating cast of friends and professional musicians.

“The secret of everything we’ve done is that we never told anybody what to play,” Robert shares. “Instead of our albums being a musical vision of one person like me or Gabrielle, they were the musical vision of a whole bunch of people.”

At times the recordings have a Middle Eastern flair, at others, West African and spiritual jazz modes come to the fore. Hints of kosmische musik, proto-house and electronic ambience are laced like LSD through the organic rhythmic structures. This was kaleidoscopic ambient music to stir the body and free the mind.

In practice, the task of synthesising these different elements fell to Scott Ansell, Robert’s son and a recording engineer whose credits now include Nile Rogers, Duran Duran, Grace Jones. With meticulous attention to detail he captured and translated the dynamic energy of each drum onto record. Their sessions became legendary, and with access to the best studios in the NYC, The Mirrors sparkled.

Despite being initially overlooked by the burgeoning ‘80s New Age market, which preferred pipes and gongs to The Mirrors’ heavy-grooving drums, Robert Ansell set up Raven Recording to self-release the music, creating a vast sonic archive of sixteen albums over almost forty years.

The breadth of Raven’s catalogue is such that curator Pol Valls had to cut an initial selection of sixty-six tracks down to the eleven featured here. What crystallises is a stunning, mind-altering collection which spans, in Pol’s words, “a variety of genres, styles, and vibes within their catalogue, whether it is emotional, esoteric, spiritual, melancholic, hypnotic, dark, or at times a combination of these elements together.”

Music for immersive and intimate environments, Gabrielle Roth & The Mirrors were born from the dance. In the hands of the right DJ, at the right time, in the right place, they might just return there.

Selected Works 1985 - 2005

Nomad

Dark Culture Project
https://culturaobscura.bandcamp.com/
www.discogs.com/artist/7978983-Cultura-Obscura

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2024.2025
11.05// Ohbe (After Party) - Nantes
16.05// Menzal X Saul, 44 tours - Nantes
17.05// Café Mancuso - Bordeaux
23.05// Bistrot de la Poste W/Julien Tiné - St Brieuc
24.05// Safe Place w/Julien Tiné - Nantes
25.05// Lieu Unique W/Julien Tiné - Nantes
26.05// Les Petits Bateaux w/Julien Tiné - Rennes
31.05// Mostä x Estuary Tapes, Dj Set! W/Tabensi - Nantes
01.06// Open Air, La Chaumière - Nantes
23.06// Goûters Electroniques, Nantes
12.07// Voyage Voyage, Nantes
13.07//  Zaw, Nantes
07.09// Faune, Nantes
14.09// Roller Disco, Nantes
21.09// Melato, Paris (Reporté)
10.10// 303, Nantes
11.10// Café Mancuso, Bordeaux
12.10//Motto, Bordeaux
27.10//A La Dérive W/ Julien Tiné & Chilly Jay, Lab, Nantes
27.10//Disquaire Nantes, Lab
10.11// Voiceless Session, Nantes
30.11// Voyage Voyage, Nantes 
06.12//Café Hourrah, St Nazaire (Estuary Tapes Exhibition!
26.12//Bras De Fer, Nantes
24.01//La Cité Fertile, Pantin
06.02// Lieu Unique, Nantes
15.06// @Days W/ Suze Ijo & Atemi, Nantes
03.10// Au Bon Coin, Nantes
04.10//Voyage Voyage, Nantes
29.11// tba paris


& more to Come!



2023
30.03// Mirage, Hanoi
12.05// Hanoi Underground Movement, Dj Set;Live from their studios! Hanoi
20.05// Mantra, Talisman, Hanoi
27.05// Kali, Hanoi
18.06// La Chaumière, Nantes
21;06//  Fête De La Musique, Nantes! Bouffay
14.07// La Cabane De Port Jean, Carquefou!
15.07// Tabarnak, Nantes!
18.07// Radio Nova // La Grande Tournée D'Eté // St Malo!
20.07// 303, Nantes
22.07// Café Mancuso, Bordeaux
11.08// Safe Place, Nantes
12.08// Les Roger Bontemps, Dinan
01.09// Bras De Fer, Nantes
07.09// La Chaumière, Nantes (AFROLAB AFTER LIVE)
15.09// Ohm Town, Nantes
16.09// Banana Derby, Mauves Sur Loire
05.10// Bras De Fer, Nantes
08.10// Aora Open Air, Nantes
13.10// Bande Originale, Nantes
27.10// Café Mancuso, Bordeaux
31.10// 303, Nantes
23.11// Estuary Tapes Release Party, Décadense, Nantes

2021.2022
11.09// 2nd Room Warehouse, Nantes
17.09// Féerie Impérative W/Superboom, Les Ecuries Mellinet, Nantes
23.09// Think Forward,, Cité Des Congrès, Pornichet
16.10// Paradise, 2nd Room Warehouse, Nantes
30.10// Mascarade, Le Ferrailleur, Nantes
27.11//2nd room Warehouse, Nantes
04.12// Café Mancuso, Bordeaux
17.12// 303, Nantes
12.02// Café Mancuso, Bordeaux
19;02// Banana Derby, Pôle Etudiant, Nantes
27:02// 303, Nantes
04.03// Wonder, Warehouse, Nantes
06.05// Spaziale, Co2, Nantes
10.06// Ouverture La Cabane De Port Jean, Carquef City Gang!
17.06// On fête la musique! Café Sur Cour, Nantes
18.06// Club Cantine W/LEBÖ, La Cantine Du Voyage, Nantes
21.06// Fête de la musique, In Town, Nantes, W/ Spaziale, Place Du Bouffay & Big City Life
24.06//Bras de Fer W/Aimé, Nantes
25.06// Les Roger Bontemps W/Barney, Phil X, Dinan
02.07// Le Rond Point All Night Long, Nantes
09/07// Café Mancuso, Bordeaux
16.08// A bruis Clos, Private Place, Normandy
10.09// Le Nom De La Rose Journey! Chez Camille & Leon W/ Barney & Pgil X
25.09// Les Nantais
01.10.// Café Mancuso, Bordeaux
16.10// 303, Sunday Session!
21.10//Decadanse W/ Julien Tiné, Barney & Phil X, Nantes
26.10// Safe Place, Nantes
27.10//Café Mancuso, Bordeaux
28.10// Bras De Fer, Nantes
25.11// Mirage, Hanoi
24.12// Kali, Hanoi

The space between the beats defines our time

Nomad

Time Capsule