Biography
Originating from concepts developed during the opening years of the millennium and first presented publicly in 2004, Factor Burzaco operates not as a standard Argentine ensemble but as a persistent avant-prog undertaking directed by Abel Gilbert, the Buenos Aires resident who works as composer, journalist/author, and educator. Gilbert fuses his interests in classically oriented contemporary writing with the innovative prog and art rock spanning the late 1960s into the middle 1970s, resulting in a lineup that shifts frequently yet retains one constant member: vocalist Carolina Restuccia, known also as the avant folk-rock performer Catukuá, whose dramatic and intense delivery has defined the project across every phase.
Abel Gilbert entered the world in Buenos Aires during 1960 and turned to music as a career path beginning in 1978, the identical year he remembers experiencing his initial live performance, given by Astor Piazzolla. An ardent admirer of the Beatles, Gilbert drew additional influence from 20th-century innovators such as Igor Stravinsky, Luciano Berio, and Gyorgy Ligeti, from the broad jazz structures associated with Charles Mingus, and from the foundational progressive rock of King Crimson. Latin traditions left a deep mark as well, encompassing not only Piazzolla from his Argentine homeland but also figures including the Brazilians Caetano Veloso, Egberto Gismonti, and Milton Nascimento. On the pop and rock front, Gilbert has singled out the stretch from 1967 to 1974—running from the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band through King Crimson’s Red—as especially meaningful.
Gilbert pursued composition studies at Buenos Aires’ Universidad Católica Argentina and issued an electro-acoustic piece scored for piano and tape in 1994, yet afterward grew disillusioned with academic circles and ceased both composing and playing for pleasure. Fresh motivation arose and the earliest elements of Factor Burzaco took shape after Gilbert passed several months in Brazil during January 2000 absorbing Piazzolla’s music, followed by a renewed, attentive hearing of In the Court of the Crimson King that he had not undertaken since the late 1970s. He resumed writing, guided by a personal vision of a Stravinsky-esque fusion of “low” and “high” musics, shaped equally by late-1960s to mid-1970s prog and art rock and by his longstanding regard for modern classical composers and experimentalists. Gilbert has since joined the faculty as a teacher of electro-acoustic composition at the Universidad Nacional de Quilmes.
Factor Burzaco first appeared across consecutive Fridays in June 2004 at Buenos Aires’ Ricardo Rojas Cultural Center, presenting a guitar-bass-drums rock trio together with flute, clarinet, saxophone, oboe, violin, cello, and marimba, while Restuccia demonstrated her vocal range within this demanding framework. Following an extended recording interval, the project’s self-titled debut album appeared independently in 2007; alongside Restuccia the core participants were guitarist Marco Bailo, bassist Federico Arbía, pianist Esteban Saldaño, and drummer Nicolás D’Almonte, with Gilbert responsible for composition and arrangement (including piano “that never stayed”) and José Brindisi supplying the lyrics. Additional guests on selected tracks comprised flutist Sergio Catalán, oboist María Zanzi, cellist Favio Loverso, violinist Elena Buchbinder, saxophonists Pablo Monteys and Pablo Berenstein, and flutist/saxophonist Mariano Ganba, all led by Marcelo Delgado.
The debut stood out for Restuccia’s vocal readings of Brindisi’s texts, which moved between warmly personal and fiercely incisive while tracing the music’s shifts through dense rock passages and chamber-like sections, overall evoking the score for an experimental avant-garde musical theater work. It gained recognition as a distinctive Argentine contribution to Rock in Opposition-flavored avant-prog, bringing to mind 1970s British group Henry Cow and the enduring American band Thinking Plague, which explains why Gilbert’s project drew the interest of Marcello Marinone and his associates at Milan’s AltrOck label, an imprint partly committed to advancing the RIO sensibility into the present century.
Four years after the first album, AltrOck issued II, the plainly titled second release from Gilbert’s project. Captured between 2008 and 2010, it involved an expanded roster that again featured Restuccia along with singer Pol González of the a cappella group Cabernet, with the chamber forces once more directed by Marcelo Delgado. Participants encompassed bassist Nahuel Tavosnanska, guitarists Alan Courtis, Carlos Lucero, and Fernando Taborda, drummer Paul Torterolo, vibraphonist/percussionist Fabian Keroglian, accordionist Sebastian Schachtel, flutist Sergio Catalán, clarinetists Federico Landaburu and Dana Najlis, bassoonist Will Genz, and saxophonists Mauro Rosales and Rosa Nolly. Lyrics came from Argentine author Marcelo Cohen, recognized for fantastical settings and neologisms, while Mauro Zannoli supplied the experimental electro-acoustic elements through electronic processing. True to classical precedent, Gilbert himself performed no instruments on the record, having praised the technical abilities of the musicians involved and noting his own lack of practice time.
Early in 2014 Factor Burzaco delivered its second AltrOck release and overall third album; following the direct naming pattern of earlier efforts, the record was called 3. Where the debut could be viewed as a rock album carrying substantial avant-garde weight and II as an avant-garde album carrying substantial rock weight, 3 shifted emphasis back toward the first record, again drawing on an extensive list of contributors. In addition to Restuccia the central players were drummer/percussionist/vibraphonist Facundo Negri, guitarist Pedro Chalkho, and bassist Carlos Quebrada Vazquez, joined by saxophonists Rosa Nolly and Martín Proscia, flutist Sergio Catalán, clarinetist Luciano Giambastiani, keyboardist Sebastián Preit, and marimbist Jacopo Costa. Singers from the classical a cappella ensemble El Nonsense Ensamble Vocal de Solista—mezzo soprano and director Valeria Martinelli, soprano Virginia Majorel, tenor Martín Diaz, and baritone Javier Lezcano—appeared on two tracks, one quoting material by Luis Alberto “El Flaco” Spinetta, a foundational and highly influential presence in Argentine rock. Every piece was composed or co-composed by Abel Gilbert, the guiding force of Factor Burzaco who again chose to write for the ensemble rather than perform alongside its members in the studio.
Abel Gilbert entered the world in Buenos Aires during 1960 and turned to music as a career path beginning in 1978, the identical year he remembers experiencing his initial live performance, given by Astor Piazzolla. An ardent admirer of the Beatles, Gilbert drew additional influence from 20th-century innovators such as Igor Stravinsky, Luciano Berio, and Gyorgy Ligeti, from the broad jazz structures associated with Charles Mingus, and from the foundational progressive rock of King Crimson. Latin traditions left a deep mark as well, encompassing not only Piazzolla from his Argentine homeland but also figures including the Brazilians Caetano Veloso, Egberto Gismonti, and Milton Nascimento. On the pop and rock front, Gilbert has singled out the stretch from 1967 to 1974—running from the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band through King Crimson’s Red—as especially meaningful.
Gilbert pursued composition studies at Buenos Aires’ Universidad Católica Argentina and issued an electro-acoustic piece scored for piano and tape in 1994, yet afterward grew disillusioned with academic circles and ceased both composing and playing for pleasure. Fresh motivation arose and the earliest elements of Factor Burzaco took shape after Gilbert passed several months in Brazil during January 2000 absorbing Piazzolla’s music, followed by a renewed, attentive hearing of In the Court of the Crimson King that he had not undertaken since the late 1970s. He resumed writing, guided by a personal vision of a Stravinsky-esque fusion of “low” and “high” musics, shaped equally by late-1960s to mid-1970s prog and art rock and by his longstanding regard for modern classical composers and experimentalists. Gilbert has since joined the faculty as a teacher of electro-acoustic composition at the Universidad Nacional de Quilmes.
Factor Burzaco first appeared across consecutive Fridays in June 2004 at Buenos Aires’ Ricardo Rojas Cultural Center, presenting a guitar-bass-drums rock trio together with flute, clarinet, saxophone, oboe, violin, cello, and marimba, while Restuccia demonstrated her vocal range within this demanding framework. Following an extended recording interval, the project’s self-titled debut album appeared independently in 2007; alongside Restuccia the core participants were guitarist Marco Bailo, bassist Federico Arbía, pianist Esteban Saldaño, and drummer Nicolás D’Almonte, with Gilbert responsible for composition and arrangement (including piano “that never stayed”) and José Brindisi supplying the lyrics. Additional guests on selected tracks comprised flutist Sergio Catalán, oboist María Zanzi, cellist Favio Loverso, violinist Elena Buchbinder, saxophonists Pablo Monteys and Pablo Berenstein, and flutist/saxophonist Mariano Ganba, all led by Marcelo Delgado.
The debut stood out for Restuccia’s vocal readings of Brindisi’s texts, which moved between warmly personal and fiercely incisive while tracing the music’s shifts through dense rock passages and chamber-like sections, overall evoking the score for an experimental avant-garde musical theater work. It gained recognition as a distinctive Argentine contribution to Rock in Opposition-flavored avant-prog, bringing to mind 1970s British group Henry Cow and the enduring American band Thinking Plague, which explains why Gilbert’s project drew the interest of Marcello Marinone and his associates at Milan’s AltrOck label, an imprint partly committed to advancing the RIO sensibility into the present century.
Four years after the first album, AltrOck issued II, the plainly titled second release from Gilbert’s project. Captured between 2008 and 2010, it involved an expanded roster that again featured Restuccia along with singer Pol González of the a cappella group Cabernet, with the chamber forces once more directed by Marcelo Delgado. Participants encompassed bassist Nahuel Tavosnanska, guitarists Alan Courtis, Carlos Lucero, and Fernando Taborda, drummer Paul Torterolo, vibraphonist/percussionist Fabian Keroglian, accordionist Sebastian Schachtel, flutist Sergio Catalán, clarinetists Federico Landaburu and Dana Najlis, bassoonist Will Genz, and saxophonists Mauro Rosales and Rosa Nolly. Lyrics came from Argentine author Marcelo Cohen, recognized for fantastical settings and neologisms, while Mauro Zannoli supplied the experimental electro-acoustic elements through electronic processing. True to classical precedent, Gilbert himself performed no instruments on the record, having praised the technical abilities of the musicians involved and noting his own lack of practice time.
Early in 2014 Factor Burzaco delivered its second AltrOck release and overall third album; following the direct naming pattern of earlier efforts, the record was called 3. Where the debut could be viewed as a rock album carrying substantial avant-garde weight and II as an avant-garde album carrying substantial rock weight, 3 shifted emphasis back toward the first record, again drawing on an extensive list of contributors. In addition to Restuccia the central players were drummer/percussionist/vibraphonist Facundo Negri, guitarist Pedro Chalkho, and bassist Carlos Quebrada Vazquez, joined by saxophonists Rosa Nolly and Martín Proscia, flutist Sergio Catalán, clarinetist Luciano Giambastiani, keyboardist Sebastián Preit, and marimbist Jacopo Costa. Singers from the classical a cappella ensemble El Nonsense Ensamble Vocal de Solista—mezzo soprano and director Valeria Martinelli, soprano Virginia Majorel, tenor Martín Diaz, and baritone Javier Lezcano—appeared on two tracks, one quoting material by Luis Alberto “El Flaco” Spinetta, a foundational and highly influential presence in Argentine rock. Every piece was composed or co-composed by Abel Gilbert, the guiding force of Factor Burzaco who again chose to write for the ensemble rather than perform alongside its members in the studio.
Albums
