Genesis of the Album

The Val is a Melodic Rock band formed in Madrid (Spain), in 2010. Gabrielle de Val, Alfonso Samos and David Erick had had a former band together, and after getting in touch again for a meal, they decided to go on with the Project they had begun years before. A bunch of songs sprung up very quickly and spontaneously, so they were able to begin recording "Back", immediately. The whole album has been composed by the three members and produced by Samos in his own recording studio. Gabrielle, who´s German, has written all the lyrics in English, because that´s the language in which the songs were conceived. The result is a powerful and inspiring recording, a synthesis of the beauty of the songs and the band´s masterly musical renditions. From the very beginning they knew that the title of this album had to be "Back", because they had met up again after being apart for years and there was a lot they had to share and tell in their songs looking back...and forwards too..

Alfonso Samos produced the album and Joe Gastwirt (Greatful Dead, Jimmi Hendrix, etc...) mastered it in his studio in California.
Next step was including more musicians in the band, as the album had been recorded by Gabrielle, Alfonso and David exclusively. They got in touch with Alex Morell (bassist), Rubén (drummer) and Isabel Cristóbal/Montse Ferrermoner (background vocals) and that´s how the band grew and was now ready to play live.
"Back" was officially presented in Madrid in December 2011 and was being sold in all Spanish main stores like Media Markt, Fnak, El Corte Inglés, etc...in February and in digital stores all over the world at the same time. The band released their official video, "The Age of the Sun" in August 2011 and had a great success with it, especially in Germany and in Spain. They were included in the main music televisions, radios and some magazines all over Germany and Spain and soon became nr. 1 in the Reverbnation list for Rock-Madrid and positioned among the first places in the general charts for Spain.

From then on, they have been playing live on the most popular and well-known venues in Madrid many times, like Top 40's venue, 40 Café, or one of the most important musical events, the Rock & Roll Marathon in Madrid, as well as in other cities like Barcelona, Girona, Seville or Salamanca, with very good criticism from the press and radio-tv presenters.

The band has also recorded one of the songs from the album (Hold On) in Spanish (No Digas Adiós) for a well known radio show (Mariskalrock) in Spain. The song is one of the bonus tracks in the vinyl special edition, as well as an acoustic version for their song "A Kiss In a Dragon Night"...

Later on they recorded the track "We can work it out" from the Beatles, that sounds fresh and natural because it was recorded live and unplugged...

The presence of The Val in the international press has finally derived into a tour that´s taken place in the United Kingdom in the summer of 2013, where the band has given 8 concerts in England and Wales. One of these concerts (The Railway, Bolton) has been reviewed by Rob Evans in the Classic Rock Magazine (AOR, 18th September 2013).

Together with German band "Subway", The Val are now releasing a new song and video, a duetto called "Break My Heart", with Francis Soto and Gabrielle leading the vocal works and Samos producing... The video has been shot between Cadiz (south of Spain) and Stuttgart (Germany).

In January 2013 the band released a Special Vinyl Edition for their album "Back", and they have been included in the last International Vinyl Record Fair of Madrid (21st/22nd September, 2013), where the band has successfully introduced the album to a new audience...vinyl consumers.

The Val are now writing songs for their next album and starting to work on the whole new project.