Banco de Gaia

Toby Marks the creative force behind Banco De Gaia is a free thinker. He is also one of the worlds leading exponents of globally inspired eclectic electronica. Mixing electronic and accoustic instruments and voices his work defies genre classification. He has worked with a variety of musicians ranging from legendary saxophonist Dick Parry who played on Pink Floyds Dark Side Of The Moon to Anglo-Egyptian singer Natacha Atlas and cutting edge dance producers such as Jack Dangers and Fluke.

Banco De Gaia cut his teeth on the early 90s Ambient Dub compilations (a precursor of the recent chill out marketing phenomenon). In 1994 he released his first studio album MAYA on Planet Dog records. MAYA was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize on its release, followed in 1995 by the critically acclaimed LAST TRAIN TO LHASA. Both albums reached No1.. in the UK independent charts as well as the national album chart top 40. In the following decade Banco De Gaia released LIVE AT GLASTONBURY, BIG MEN CRY, THE MAGICAL SOUNDS OF BANCO DE GAIA, IGIZEH and YOU ARE HERE as well as the best of compilations 10 YEARS and 10 YEARS REMIXED.

Few artists, even with major label support, have viable careers beyond that difficult second album. Banco De Gaia however has already released a total of nine albums over the last 12 years. His work has been included on numerous compilations, film soundtracks, and advertising campaigns. He has been remixed by the great and the good, Oliver Lieb, Rabbit in The Moon and The Dub Pistols to name just a few.

May 2002 saw the start of the long awaited re-release of the classic Banco De Gaia albums MAYA, LAST TRAIN TO LHASA, LIVE AT GLASTONBURY and BIG MEN CRY. The catalogue had been held in a legal limbo for a number of years in which time the rights had fallen into the hands of the Disney Corporation in the US. In 1999 Toby Marks started Disco Gecko Recordings in the UK to release THE MAGICAL SOUNDS OF BANCO DE GAIA and in October 2001 he bought back the rights to his entire back catalogue from Michael Dog who originally signed him to Planet Dog in1993.

In September 2002 he also released the first ever Banco De Gaia compilation 10 YEARS, which was a critical and commercial success, followed by 10 YEARS REMIXED in 2003 which featured reworkings of Banco de Gaia tunes by Asian Dub Foundation, Dreadzone and Transglobal Underground amongst others. YOU ARE HERE, his first new studio album in three years, was released in May 2004.

Banco de Gaia has always been as much about performing live as recording albums and Toby Marks has never been happy to let the live show stagnate. Various permutations of humans and electronics have seen live shows ranging from him onstage alone with a laptop to as much as one tonne of hardware accompanied by 5 musicians, and in 2003 he decided it was time to explore the possibilites of working with video as well as music. In 2004 he took to the road with video artist Mik Findlay and together they explored issues including the environment, rights of indigineous peoples and globalisation to the delight of audiences worldwide. As a result the first Banco de Gaia video release, a DVD based on the 2004 live shows titled, not surprisingly, TWO THOUSAND AND 4, was released in June 2005 as a limited edition item only available through the Banco website and at live shows.

In 2007 Toby Marks took on the epic task of recreating a complete cover version of the classic Pink Floyd track ECHOES in his own inimitable style. The result was both recorded and performed live as a full 23-minute rendition including live guitar, video and contemporary electronic trickery. This led to further cover version explorations which are finally being released, along with reworkings of early Banco classics and over an hour of live recordings from across the years, on a double CD celebration of Banco de Gaia's 20th anniversary. The album, titled MEMORIES DREAMS REFLECTIONS, was released worldwide in September 2009.

The next decade saw the release of a handful of classic albums: Big Men Cry, The Magical Sounds of Banco de Gaia, Igizeh, You Are Here and Farewell Ferengistan, with Drippy from Big Men Cry featuring in Darren Aronofsky’s cult film Pi.

Banco de Gaia’s music was never about sitting in recording studios only, though. He is known as well for his numerous live performances and ability to energize a dancefloor.

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