Gazebo Penguins

Gazebo Penguins are among the very few bands able to combine direct, visceral sounds — that sweat-and-scream mix of post-hardcore punk and emo-core — with lyrics that distill complex feelings and thoughts into something immediate and cutting, without ever losing a sharp depth of insight.

Temporale is proof of it: a concept album about the brain, its layers, and its relationship with our sense of self. It tackles the subject in a way that’s both fascinating and accessible, moving brilliantly — and with complete authority — between neuroscience and the philosophy of mind.
You can tell it from the title alone, which refers to the temporal lobe, the portion of the cerebral cortex involved in many cognitive processes, including the understanding of spoken language, the control and regulation of emotion and affect, memory, listening, and the comprehension of music.

Nine songs that — just like our nervous system — gather input, send signals, and loop them back, in a continuous and recurring weave where every departure also becomes a return, and vice versa. A spreading chain of reflections that draws on Nietzsche and Putnam, Gestalt psychology and Schopenhauer, questioning complex and anything-but-obvious themes.
For instance: the boundary between reality and perception — how the brain’s automatisms shape the way we decode the world and experience it, sometimes making life easier, sometimes throwing us into chaos. The way memory and the recollections we hold in our minds define who we are, and how deeply our identity is tied to the brain. And then again, the differences between who we truly are, how we see ourselves, and how the world sees us.

Themes that Gazebo Penguins tackle without pretension and without fear, once again putting themselves completely on the line — even in the way the album was written. Unlike all the band’s previous records, in fact, Temporale was born in the studio, without ever rehearsing the songs live together: parts were added one after another, allowed to settle, rewritten countless times, reshaped over months, and — for the first time — choruses were introduced into their songs.

After so many years spent playing and writing songs, challenges can become the driving force behind one’s relationship with music. And while it’s true that every album is a challenge, some are undeniably more so than others — Temporale is one of them.

In a world always ready to sell us quick, instant solutions — to fix and simplify everything in the shortest time and with the least effort possible — Gazebo Penguins proudly and fiercely swim against the current, searching for the nuances that add value and authenticity to life, and then slamming them into us with full force.