Songs of the year, number 6: Gazel - Unknowable

The first release for London based, British born Turkish artist Gazel since 2019's audacious (and criminally under reviewed) debut album Gazel's Book Of Souls, 'Unknowable' marks a tentative return for an artist who should have been capitalising on the artistry of her debut as 2020 began but who was, instead, stuck at home like the rest of us.

Gazel Algan played all the instruments, did all the vocals, designed the artwork and produced 'Unknowable' and the result is a worthy successor to Book Of Souls. It is brooding and magnificent, atmospheric and all encompassing, epic and majestic. It is to be hoped that there will be more releases soon.

Gazel - Unknowable

Gazel's debut album, Gazel's Book Of Souls, was released in late 2019. It came second only to the debut Self Esteem album in my Albums of the year list for 2019 and it was cruelly passed over for the Mercury Music prize shortlist in 2020. I mean, it's very possible that - being such a small release - neither artist nor label could afford the entry fee for the Mercury but, still, it was cruelly unacknowledged in it's brilliance, audacity, ambition of scale and sheer talent.

It's been a long wait for new material but, at last, Gazel has emerged from what she describes as a "Lengthy hibernation" and there is to be a new EP, Dark Earth, from which 'Unknowable' is the first track to be released. 'Unknowable' is based on "the folk song Nem Kaldi, a Turkish lament" and Gazel "played/programmed and recorded all the instruments on it"

You get the impression that the pandemic has been hard for her but, following a gig in Hackney on the 22nd June, she is definitely back.