Yves Altana (former producer)

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Yves Altana playing guitar in Invincible
Yves Altana was the Corsican guitarist of Manchester band Wonky Alice (of which Gabrielles Wish were fans) and Invincible, a band formed with The Chamaleons leader Mark Burgess. Now Yves is working on a new project called Recognized. He produced the Gabrielles Wish album Portal. He sent this short but interesting note about the band. Many thanks, Yves.

I met Gabrielles Wish during my time with Wonky Alice around 1992/93. They use to come and watch us when our LP "Atomic Raindance" came out...
I got to know them as I knew Paula who used to manage them.
My ex girlfriend did some great photo artwork with them and we used to watch them in small venues in Manchester.

Later, I recorded some demo-songs for Gabrielles Wish (about 6/7 years ago) in their rehearsal room.

I really enjoyed working with them "artistically", and got on really well with every one of them.
During the "Portal" sessions, it was my role as the producer not just to record the music but also to bring the best out of everyone individually and I believe that we achieved that - I really felt being part of the group for 3 weeks!!! They all are very generous and they always gave me enough space to create intensity and atmospheric vibes into the songs.
I was also lucky to meet and work with their young drummer called Bo. He'll become an amazing drummer (he's already one!).

As for Rob (singer), his vocal takes were immediate, just enough time to put the vocal mic through the compressor and press RECORD.

Every "vocal take" were just PERFECT.
After each one, he would say to me: "How's that Brother?".
And I'd say: "That was fuckin' bril man! Next song please" (!) :-)