The name Marlene Ribeiro may not mean anything to you, just like it didn’t to me until I took on this review, and started researching a little deeper, but if you do have an awareness of the band Gnod, then you will already be aware of Marlene’s work, even if you can’t place the name. As one of the long-term members of Gnod, Marlene took the decision a couple of years back to step away, and focus on her own musical journey, embracing sounds and feeling that I imagine weren’t a hundred percent compatible with the band.
Obviously, after a trying few years, the fruits of the labours have come together and formulated an album, truly full of wonder and beauty indeed. Born and raised in Portugal, Marlene came to the United Kingdom as a teen and has resided in several different places, before falling into Wales to call home. In that time allegiances were formed, bands created, and throughout the course of an impressive number of years, those skills have been homed into what we see before us today.
And it’s that culmination that I will be looking at, a wonderfully deep, poignant, and warm album, filled with moments of pure joy, heart-melting ambience, and charm, that will leave you feeling like your very soul has been embraced. Toquei No Sol, which translates from Portuguese as ‘I touched the sun’, couldn’t be more aptly titled, because that is literally how it will make you feel throughout the whole experience. It is a six-track masterwork of depth, restraint, and carefully considered moments, guaranteed to leave you absolutely humbled in its wake. From: https://www.thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/m/marlene-ribeiro-toquei-no-sol/
