Gypsy Kumbia Orchestra’s new album VelkomBak

Gypsy Kumbia Orchestra premieres their new album VelkomBak exclusively on Ici Musique

Indie Montreal’s IMTL Press is pleased to announce that Gypsy Kumbia Orchestra’s new album VelkomBak is is now premiering exclusively on Ici Musique before its official release on all platforms May 15th.

The idea for the album VelkomBak and the band’s stage show evolved concurrently, constantly complimenting each other throughout the group’s two-year creative process. The result is an upbeat musical invitation to live and dance all together.

The story begins with a fisherman who is not catching any fish. He embarks on a ship hoping to find what he is looking for. In the vessel, he encounters people from many backgrounds, each with their own stories and dreams for the future. Among them, there is a crazy polizonte (an illegal immigrant) who keeps talking about a coming storm. As the show plays out, a storm does indeed hit. The group’s story will finish being told after the current pandemic unfolds and their stage show is able to go live.

With massive forced migrations’, floods, storms, pandemics and other events contributing to a general state of urgency, Gypsy Kumbia Orchestra wanted to communicate this urgency through art. While they wait for the opportunity to present their one-of-a-kind show, GKO invites you in the meantime to discover their new album VelkomBak.

Gypsy Kumbia Orchestra
Montreal’s GKO is an explosion of music and dance, circus and imagination. Part of the international cumbiero movement, the orchestra fuses Colombian Caribbean rhythms and percussion with different influences from around the world into a creative chaos that makes people dance. The orchestra maintains a traditional rhythm by playing acoustic instruments which transport you to a sublime tropical landscape, the extravagance of the Balkan universe, or to the “golden age” of brass bands.

Since 2012, GKO has played over 300 concerts across Canada, 3 international tours (Colombia in 2014, France in 2015 and Czech Republic & Austria in 2016). They have self-produced sold out shows in venues like Club Soda (2014-2015), Rialto Theatre (2017) and Le National (2018) in addition to their sold out monthly events at La Sala Rossa. Their 2015 debut album “Revuelta Danza party” was nominated the same year at the JUNO and at the ADISQ Awards in the category “Album of the year – World music.

The Juno-nominated live touring sensation’s second album “VelkomBak” launches on May 15th. It features a dozen original compositions that greatly expands the musical palette of the band, with strong influences from the Andes to Quebec, through India and Spain, all the way to the Balkans, as well as other popular music styles such as ska, jazz and funk. A uniquely recipe, connecting disparate cultures and traditions through the common thread of cumbia’s rhythmic language.

GKO music has a flavor that could transport you to either an exuberant tropical landscape, then to the extravaganza of the Balkan’s universe or to the golden era of the big bands. Combining accordion, violin, clarinet, a full brass session, Colombian percussions, singing and dance, GKO is a world in itself.