PRE-RELEASE: Light, Shade, and 16-Voice Choirs: Inside Gabriel Zingiber’s 'Lighthouse'
Gabriel Zingiber - Live at The Victoria in London (Image: Joan Payà @photobypaya)
It is always great when a new single lands on the mat at North of Here HQ, but when it’s one that was conceived almost ten years ago it makes you sit up and take notice!
Gabriel Zingiber is a Brazilian–Brighton-based producer, guitarist, and multi-instrumentalist who has been living and creating in the UK for about a decade.
Releasing the instrumental Under A Mango Tree in 2024, this was followed up by Marigold in 2025. Both were painstakingly well-crafted pieces of music—the former blending his Brazilian influences with intricate acoustic guitar motifs trading blows with flute-infused passages; the latter branching into chamber-folk with its beautifully textured, pastoral underpinnings.
Lighthouse
Lighthouse single cover (Image: credit as above)
The single Lighthouse, to be released on July 24th, 2026, is a sprawling eight-and-a-half minute opus.
While the song’s foundations originally surfaced as an acoustic version back in 2017, it has now been completely reimagined in a grander style. Knowing the concept didn't fit into a standard pop or rock box, Zingiber waited for the right moment to give it the complex arrangement it deserved, finally entering the studio to begin its massive production last year.
Mastered by Miles Showell at the legendary Abbey Road Studios, the track rubs shoulders with some stellar historical company, but its pristine sonic architecture sparkles rather than bows.
Over the course of the hefty track—almost like the beam of a lighthouse circling its arc—the song pivots between thunderous bright light and introspective darkness. There’s a rich progressive theme underpinning the piece, with echoes of classic artists such as Pink Floyd, Yes, and the acoustic brushstrokes Jimmy Page tastefully painted Led Zeppelin’s finest moments with.
Starting off gently, a powerful 16-voice gospel choir soon makes its mark as the song germinates. From there, Zingiber’s multi-instrumental prowess blends a staggering, cinematic palette of instrumentation: acoustic, electric, and 12-string guitars, piano, Hammond organ, synthesizers, concert and piccolo flutes, harmonica, and even the eerie waves of a theremin.
With some brilliantly fluid, Latin American-flavoured guitar work interlaced through the track’s instrumental movements, Zingiber recalls the work of Steven Wilson with a South American twinge.
Building to a crescendo as we hear ocean waves, seagulls, and ship sirens wash over the mix, it reaches a climactic conclusion with a wonderfully unrestrained guitar solo, which bows out with the dramatic flourish the preceding eight-and-a-half minutes have set up.
Length-wise, this isn’t your standard three-minute pop single. It demands a bit more of your attention and consideration as it weaves its way across its epic journey, but this investment delivers a far more lasting impression.
“Sweet light that guides me and takes me away. Lighthouse, a spark amid fog burning red.”
Overall, it is a remarkably strong release. Zingiber’s talented production earns its keep in harnessing the light and shade throughout the song, the sterling musicianship evident from his previous releases is more than maintained, and the esteemed mastering adds a beacon-like cherry to the top of the sonic cake.
As a result, Lighthouse becomes not just a new song, but a bold statement of his fully realised identity under the Zingiber name. Hopefully, the release will project a beam of light onto Gabriel Zingiber and help him navigate his promising career on an upward trajectory.
The credits from the impressive single (Image: Lighthouse EPK)
Gabriel at the studio (Image: artist’s own collection)
Catch the light from the single from July 24th on all the usual outlets or here.
