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In the quasi penumbra of some years without releases, Gábor Gadó has been working on an intense deepening of his language on stage. And while the last to appear, Byzantium (2007) and Lung-Gom-Pa (2008), suggested growing abstraction, the first lines of 'Weltraum' on Ungrund (2011) testify to a return to the fundamentals of Baroque music in the constant company of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. The pull of this aesthetic has its resolution in 'Veil and Quintessence', another episode in the frenzied quest which is the source of Gábor Gadó's music. For Gadó creation is not a voluntary act, but it begins in a state of trance, the music is not born 'of music' but 'of an inner state, intimate, and flowing from a "root" idea, from a principle.' This is how the opening piece, Ombra adorata, was born: 'This beautiful expression from the Spanish Basque thinker Miguel de Unamuno triggered the initial idea: the acceptance of the dark side of things, the duality between dark and light that merges into a single superior entity.' This duality is incarnate in his mate, trumpet player Laurent Blondiau, whose tone is at times very pure, almost celestial, evoking Kenny Wheeler, and at times 'besmirched' with jungle mute effects, recalling the trumpeting style of Ellington. Gadó's guitar style has a subtle, highly intimate relationship with modal traditions and tonal harmony, and more generally with the great artistic and spiritual traditions of Mitteleuropa and oriental mysticism. He appears to move with great stylistic unity from a folk, modal idiom to the harmonization of a Protestant chorale and to the fluid voice-leading typical of writing for the string quartet, in a symbiosis of the horizontal and the vertical, of the contradictory enticements of the ostinato and modulating harmony. In contrast to the clear lines of the trumpet is his way of dimming the apparent attack of his guitar to the sound of a chorale or a church organ.

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On Veil And Quintessence, Gado performs duets with trumpeter Laurent Blondiau whose sound and introspective style sometimes recall Kenny Wheeler a bit. They introduce ten Gado originals which often have folkish themes that lend themselves to melodic improvising filled with classical-type melodies. The duo works together closely with Blondiau expressing ideas very complementary to the guitarist's musical thoughts. While the titles include 'Mahler - Strauss Memorial,' 'Little Protestant Jazz Song' and 'Anywhere Out Of The World,' the music flows logically from one piece to another. More memorable than any of the themes or even the individual solos are the laidback mood and cinematic playing of the duo. The results are both relaxing and stimulating.

     —Scott Yanow, L.A. Jazz Scene