Sky Diving Penguins: Sky Diving Penguins

Nobody knows for what happened to Georgian singer and multi-instrumentalist Gia Iashvili shortly after the release of the debut EP of his Sky Diving Penguins project in 2001. A record deal was imminent, rave reviews were rolling in, but apparently he had a change of heart and he spend a couple of years as a hermit in a cave in the Mount Fuji Five Lakes in Japan, before making his way to the embassy and catching a plane home to Tbilisi. He ran into a former professional football player Georgi Kinkladze and they talked at length about the Georgian culture and, more importantly, music. Fast forward to December 2021 and the long overdue first full-length finally sees the light of day.

Iashvili loves the Beatles in their Rubber Soul / Revolver / Sgt. Pepper phase, but there always plenty of nods to the Fab Four's label mates Badfinger, the Canterbury scene, the Zombies, early ELO, the softer side of Nirvana, and Steven Wilson's first solo albums. He writes melancholic, soul-searching neo-psychedelic songs, served up in wrapping of orchestral pop. Backed a handful of top shelf instrumentalists he has created an album that will be on repeat for hours on end. It is sequenced as a vinyl album, so fingers crossed that it will be released as such in the near future.

Gia Iashvili: guitar, bass, mouth organ, electric piano, percussion, vocals
Dimitri Oganesian: drums
Kote Kalandadze: acoustic guitar (I Don't Want, I Don't Care), electric guitar (Hating Waiting, Tripping #9)
Nika Kocharov: electric guitar (Serotonin)
Tiko Kvaliashvili: flute (This Is Breaking Me Apart, Headaches Will Cause Migraines)
Vako Saatashvili: trumpet (I Don't Want, I Don't Care. Hating Waiting, About One Hermit)
Beka Berikishvili: French Horn (I Don't Want, I Don't Care, About One Hermit)
Evgenyi Inchagov: cello (I Don't Want I Don't Care, This is Breaking Me Apart, Hating Waiting, About One Hermit, Headaches Will Cause Migraines)
Maria Charkseliani: backing vocals

Sky Diving Penguins is a self-released album. Buy it from their website.

Tracks:

1. I Don't Want, I Don't Care
2. Serotonin
3. This Is Breaking Me Apart
4. Hating Waiting
5. All Goes Back In The Box In The End
6. About One Hermit
7. Run Boy
8. Depressed Or Bored
9. Headache Will Cause Migraines
10. Tripping #9

» skydivingpenguins.com