The Book Of Gnomes is an obscure (for the time being) experimental project curated by Ben Bowen, Marshall Bureau, Darren Wall, and Nick Zubeck. I'll quote something off their myspace page cause it's true: "Book Of Gnomes is a music geek's dream band". That doesn't say it all, though. It's my belief that with the right media support, their eclectic sound would be loved by everyone, music geek or not. There is so much here to love. It's different, no doubt, but there's a universal appeal that oozes through, and anyone with a soul would find sitting and listening to them a pure pleasure. There's jazz in there for sure - Ben's trumpet sound is warm and sits perfectly wherever it lands. But it's not just the jazz aspect that thrills (and I admit, I'm a push-over for good live jazz), it's the journey they take you on, where you can "get" the music if you want, or just feel it.
From this point forward, I will be a relentless cheerleader for these guys. I think they might wind up being four of the most relevant musicians (artists too) in Toronto. Not exaggerating.
