With his fourth album ‘This Marauder’s Midnight’ Puerto Rican singer-songwriter Gabriel Rios has chosen an acoustic and lightly classical path. The album was recorded with two Dutch (classical) musicians: Amber Docters van Leeuwen (cello) and Ruben Samama (double bass). “It is a pop album, recorded in a non-classical pop strength, with classical musicians,” says Amber Docters van Leeuwen. “We as a pop band are a classical formation. There is no percussionist, for example.” She goes onto reveal that it was not always easy for her as a classical musician to record an album with a pop singer: “He does not write down his music, he does not read notes. That is a way of working we are not used to. But it has turned out to be a wonderful album, to which Ruben and I have been able to contribute greatly. We love the fact that we are now able to play this album to the visitors of Grachtenfestival Amsterdam.’
Amber Docters van Leeuwen and her husband Ruben Samama met Gabriel Rios during their stay in New York. Sanama has played with Rios on several occasions, one of which was at the Rockwood Music Hall, the very venue where the album This Marauder’s Midnight was recorded. The first single of the album, Gold, won the ‘Hit van het Jaar’-award.
Before Rios’ performance, there will be a short concert by the young countertenor Oscar Verhaar (1987) with 17th century songs by poet, scientist, diplomat and composer Constantijn Huygens (1596-1687) and such Italian contemporaries as Caccini, Kapsperger and Monteverdi.
As is the case with Rios, the emphasis in the works of Constantijn Huygens is on the lyrics: love poetry put to music. The setting is simple, with lute accompaniment by Michiel Niessen.
There are traces of Monteverdi and Caccini in Rios’ music. Five centuries have gone by, but the singer-songwriter genre has proven a timeless phenomenon.