Gagarin’s latest album is named after the Japanese word Komorebi which refers to how sunlight is seen and felt through leaves and branches, and the record takes that as a loose theme through it’s ten tracks evoking light and shade and the combining of both.
Gagarin is the solo project of veteran experimentalist Graham ‘ Dids’ Dowdall who has spent several decades operating around the outer fringes of rock, dance, electronic and improvised musics. Currently a member of avant legends Pere Ubu he has worked with Nico, John Cale, Ludus and many more in his long career. 2023 saw him commissioned to create a soundscape for and event on Box Hill in Surrey and also a soundtrack for a film about Nico – tracks developed from these are on the new album.
His last album The Great North Wood was played on BBC Radio 3, 6 Music, resonance FM, NDR in Germany, RCV France, RTE Ireland, RUM Portugal, Boiler Room and received coverage and reviews in the Wire, Quietus, Electronic Sound, Rockerilla, Impose, Bandcamp Daily, 6am, Freq, Big Shot and many more.
