Bella Gaia
After soaring through the Bay Area and dazzling a packed house at the Marin Center with their cosmic world music immersive theater, the Bella Gaia ensemble has released their debut music CD. A sense of celestial wonder is alive within a rhythmic interweaving of stars, planets, moons, and their interconnected gravities on Bella Gaia: Beautiful Earth. An Avant musical collective, Bella Gaia creates music imbued with an iridescent landscape of gossamer melodies and deceptively built labyrinths of compelling rhythms. Bella Gaia leader Kenji Williams is fully at the helm, playing lively, sensuous violin, and Kristin Hoffmann as center point provides vocals that sway, support, take off, and encircle the musical element. This combining melds a classical approach to composition with a modern sense of rhythmic elasticity and dynamism. Kristin, a singer-songwriter of the highest order, has already won over Bay Area audiences with her recent concert (she’s back on Valentine’s Day at Studio 55 Marin—don’t miss her).
Bella Gaia incorporates exotic rhythms courtesy of Deep Singh, world-class koto playing by Yumi Kurosawa, and others on ney flute, sax, oud, and jazz piano. Quixotic melodies, surprising diversity, and a host of unexpected sounds are in the spirit of their live performances, aimed to bring attention to issues concerning the devastation of the earth and our roles in the preservation of our environment. This is music intended to move and affect, not to simply be observed. USA Today calls it “out of this world”—they’re not kidding! BellaGaia.com
—LLOYD BARDE (LLOYDBARDE.COM)