“Vinyl”, which was fully funded by The Gift themselves, was named Album of the Year by the Diário de Notícias newspaper a first for a Portuguese independent band and began courting the attention of the labels that previously ignored The Gift’s work. «Vinyl» combined the potentials of new technologies (samples and synthesizer) with classical instruments (violins, cellos, trumpets, saxophones etc.). In November 1998, the band’s first true record “Vinyl” is released. Sónia Tavares, The Gift - photo by João Loureiro In 1998, they established themselves as an independent band forming g their own label, La Folie with the visionary goal of releasing a next record as independents.
Soon after the Digital Atmosphere Tour finished, Ricardo Braga left the band and The Gift was now a four member group once again. In 1997 the band went on the road, playing at over 30 theatres (many of which sold out) and released video at the end of the tour at Belém Cultural Centre and the Alcobaça Cine-Teatro shows.
From this effort, “Digital Atmosphere” was born, a six track enhanced CD featuring interviews and videos, recorded at home but not available in stores. The Gift masterminded their first record, with the intention of using it as a demo for the media and labels. This was followed by the Belém Cultural Centre (Lisbon) in September 1996 and the Labirintho Bar (Porto) in November 1996.
The band performed its first show at the Alcobaça Monastery in July 1995. In September 1994, Sónia Tavares, Nuno and John Gonçalves, Miguel Ribeiro and Ricardo Braga enrolled in the Bar Ben Music Competition in Alcobaça and took second place in the competition, to everyone’s great surprise, given the band’s short time in existence. The evolution from one project to another was natural, as they felt the Dead Souls sound was limited by their instrumentation (guitar, drums and bass)and they wanted to experiment with new sounds and explore new musical paths. Formed in 1994, The Gift was initially a side project of the Dead Souls, Nuno Gonçalves and Miguel Ribeiro’s band at the time.
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