Jacco Gardner

Dutch-born psychedelic explorer Jacco Gardner began his career sounding like he had been unearthed on a time travel trip back to 1967, his early recordings, like his 2012 debut album Cabinet of Curiosities, were faithfull reproductions of the baroque pop and toytown psych that were taking over pop music at the time. He branched out a little on his second album, adding British folk influences, but after a move to Lisbon, his music took a turn toward a spacy, synthesizer heavy approach and his third album Somnium was an intersting blend of psych-pop and Tangerine Dream. Inspired by groups like the Zombies and the Left Banke, Gardner released his first single ("Clear the Air"/"A House on the Moon") in 2012 for the Spanish label Action Weekend, then appeared with the neo-psych group Bombay Show Pig on the one-sided single "Get Lost in the Shuffle" for the Dutch label Excelsior Recordings, before rounding out the year with a single ("Where Will You Go"/"Summer's Game") for the American label Trouble in Mind. Gardner began recording his first album in 2012 at his own Shadow Shoppe Studio, playing almost all the instruments by himself save the drums, which were done by Jos van Tol. Also helping out with the premastering was Jan Audier, who had worked with Dutch pop and psych bands the Motions, Golden Earring, and Q 65 in the '60s. The completed album, Cabinet of Curiosities, was released in early 2013 by Trouble in Mind. Forming a live band, which consisted of Ben Rider on guitar, Frank Maston on keyboards, bassist Jasper Verhulst, and drummer Nic Niggebrugge, Gardner headed out on the road to promote the well-reviewed and received album. Returning to his home studio, he set to work on his next album, adding more vintage keyboards and a British folk influence. Hypnophobia was released by Polyvinyl in the spring of 2015. After moving to Lisbon, falling in love and getting into old science fiction novels, Gardner began to experiment with synthesizers and eventually came up with a hybrid sound that meshed his love of baroque pop with ambient synthesizer music. His third album, 2018's Somnium reflected this new sound and was purely instrumental. Polyvinyl released the record in late 2018. ~ Tim Sendra, Rovi