I would have thought he was Italian too, with that name and with a voice that could, at times, have made him The Fourth Tenor.
He’s actually Gabriel Stenborg, which is at least a bit more Swedish and he is currently studying for a Master's degree in Glasgow, for which “his day to day life involves a lot of sitting, hunched over a desk or at a piano, notating art music pieces.” Perfect for BBC4 when he graduates I reckon, or perhaps Late Junction or Night Tracks on Radio 3.
His inspirations come from classical music, pop, jazz and folk, and he says, possibly self-deprecatingly, that “Gabriel Florence had to happen sooner or later. - a synthesis of 60's and 70's influenced indie pop and classically sprinkled singer- songwriter poems.”
What all that boils down to is an amalgam, as his PR says, of Nick Drake and Jeff Buckley, or is it the other way around?
The song kicks up with carefully plucked guitar before the Buckley persona cuts in, backed by an orchestral arrangement which might feature a theremin and perhaps a Chamberlin. Even his own voice takes on a theremin-like quality.
It’s a very well constructed song with a couple of challenging time signature changes which he handles with ease.
I can think of a whole range of established artists, across multiple genres that he could, and should be opening for when the time comes. Unless he prefers being hunched over a desk of course. A classy writer and performer, no doubt about it.
Find him on Facebook.