A special limited box-set edition of Daniel's first three solo album CDs.
Each box is numbered and signed by Daniel.
Included are 3 vinyl-style mini-sleeve CDs.
Only 100 copies available.
You will also receive download links to the new re-mastered audio versions of the CDs (CD-quality Aiffs + 256 kbps mp3s + digital booklet + pics)
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Daniel Biro ‘Soho Square’
1. Soho Square [4:26]
2. Beauty and the Beast - Beauty [24:03]
3. Beauty and the Beast - Interplay 1 [3:58]
4. Beauty and the Beast - Beast [11:13]
5. Beauty and the Beast - Interplay 2 [3:22]
6. Beauty and the Beast - Beauty and the Beast [12:32]
All music and instruments by Daniel Biro
Vocals by Véronique Joly
Images by Daniel Biro
These pieces were originally written for Jane Turner’s Turning Worlds dance company. They were first performed in 1991 (Soho Square) and 1992 (Beauty And The Beast).
Performed in the open air in London’s famous Soho Square itself, ‘Soho Square’ describes a day in the life of a busy big city square from dawn to dusk. Built around a symmetrical structure, the piece opens with early morning urban noises before a heavy anvil beat announces the initial orchestral build-up to the main theme. Having reached a peak, the music quietens to a central eye-of-the-storm calm, a midday meditation from which emerges a more lyrical piano-solo section. This leads to the final orchestral statement and the piece ends with the anvil and rumbles as nighttime falls on the city.
The timeless fairy-tale of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ is the setting for the three main sections of this composition separated by two bright ‘pop’ Interplays. The duality between superficial ‘Beauty’, represented here by a never-ending melody, and the painful darkness of ‘The Beast’, symbolised by meandering chords and harmonic ambiguities, is finally resolved in ‘The Beauty and The Beast’ where oneness between melody and harmony is achieved.
Original album released in 1993
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Daniel Biro ‘The Comparative Anatomy of Angels’
1. The Comparative Anatomy of Angels: I. Mikael [4:26]
2. The Comparative Anatomy of Angels: II. Azrael [4:28]
3. The Comparative Anatomy of Angels: III. Gabriel [4:28]
4. Beba In White [13:54]
5. Strange Attractor 1 [4:09]
6. Strange Attractor 2 [6:39]
7. With These Gloves You Will Enter Mirrors Like Water [22:00]
Daniel Biro: Fender Rhodes electric piano, synthesizer, drums programming
Text by Jean Cocteau used by permission of Editions du Rocher
Recorded in 1995 at Hoxton Studios, London by Mike Willox and Danny Sykes
Original Mastering by Luc Martinez at CIRM Studios, Nice - France
Images by Daniel Biro
Having grown up in the south of France where Cocteau lived and worked, I returned there to produce this album in collaboration with the CIRM (Centre International de Recherche Musicale) in Nice.
From the haunting a-capella voices of the title piece to the pulsating electric guitars of ‘Beba in White’ and from the minimalist string quartet textures of ‘With These Gloves You Will Enter Mirrors Like Water’ to the solo electric piano ‘Strange Attractors’ interludes, this music is a homage to Cocteau’s magical worlds of mirrors and angels.
Original album released in 1996
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Daniel Biro ‘Elegant Enigmas’
1. Imprint [40:50]
2. Elegant Enigmas [12:05]
3. Notturno o Mattutino [2:58]
Daniel Biro – Rhodes electric piano, flutes on ‘Aeolus’, harp on ‘Orpheus’
Jane Chapman – harpsichord on ‘Elegant Enigmas’
All music written by Daniel Biro except ‘Notturno o Mattutino’ by Nino Rota (published by C.A.M. srl) – arr. Daniel Biro
Produced and recorded by Daniel Biro in 1998-99
Image by Daniel Biro
‘Elegant Enigmas’ reflects my on-going passion for the Fender Rhodes electric piano. Designed in the forties by Harold Rhodes using airplane spare parts, and pioneered in the early 1970s by electric jazz artists like Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Joe Zawinul (Miles Davis used to shock his acoustic pianists by saying: “play this!”) but also Ray Manzarek, Stevie Wonder, Donald Fagen, Bob James, etc. Nevertheless, the Fender Rhodes has rarely been explored in a solo, experimental context. Ambient artist Harold Budd is one notable exception.
My love for this instrument has led me to investigate its sonic qualities and, hopefully, reveal some hidden riches. Because of its inherent mechanical imperfections and unevenness, each Rhodes piano has its own idiosyncrasies and peculiarities. Rather than try to suppress these I preferred to go along and use them as a continuous source of surprises.
