'Lyrically at a level you rarely hear… consistently brilliant.’

Cerys Matthews, BBC6 music


’Something new to fall in love with’

Chris Hawkins, BBC6 Music


’A driven piece of feisty guitar pop’

Steve Lamacq, BBC6 Music


’A great songwriter and a kindred spirit’

Ezra Furman, BBC6 Music

A sublime slice of surrealist art pop

Clash Magazine - 8/10

Like a mid-career Beatles album, with nary a note wasted. A statement creating a sense of place and comfort-blanketed zesty nostalgia.

God is in the TV - 9/10 
 
Photo by Leo Garbutt

Photo by Leo Garbutt

Part punk poet, part art pop multi-instrumentalist, Gabi Garbutt’s music has been championed by radio DJs such as BBC6 Music’s Steve Lamacq, Cerys Matthews and Chris Hawkins, and Radio X’s John Kennedy, as well as fellow musicians such as Ezra Furman, Pete Doherty, Frank Turner and Du Blonde, the latter inviting Gabi to release an E.P on her label Daemon T.V and collaborating on the lead track ‘Panic’.

Gabi Garbutt & The Illuminations supporting Edwyn Collins at the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, September 2019.

Gabi Garbutt & The Illuminations supporting Edwyn Collins at the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, September 2019.

Gabi self-released her debut album ‘The Discredited Language of Angels’ in 2019, leading to significant BBC6 Music support, including a live session on Cerys Matthews’ show. Gabi and her band were invited to join Edwyn Collins on his U.K tour and The Libertines on a handful of their European tour dates, including a memorable date at the legendary Paris Olympia - with Gabi’s name up in bright red neon where the names of Piaf and Brel had hung before.

Post lock-down, Gabi and her band were invited to join The Boomtown Rats at the Palladium and supported Big Country on tour. Gabi had spent the lockdown working on her second album, and in 2022, Gabi signed to Trapped Animal Records for the release of Cockerel, which saw Gabi appear as a panellist on Steve Lamacq’s Roundtable and perform acoustic on John Kennedy’s Radio X-Posure. In April 2023, Gabi released ‘The Creation of Birds’ E.P on Daemon T.V, with BBC6’s Chis Hawkins calling it ‘something new to fall in love with.’ The lead single ‘Panic’ was added to Radio X’s evening playlist and was chosen by James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy, Suicide Squad) as one of his top 25 of 2023.

This year, Gabi supported Grace Petrie on ten dates of her U.K tour. In summer, she will be releasing an E.P of stripped back acoustic versions of a selection of songs, and plans to record her next album later in the year.