Draft:Daniel Biro (composer, keyboard player)

Daniel Andrew Biro (born in 1963) is a London-based composer, keyboard player and producer. He is the founder of the Sargasso record label which he started in 1993. He has released over 25 albums of original music either as a solo artist or in collaboration with bands Mysteries of the Revolution (with Peter BB Davis), Echo Engine, Colin Bass (Camel) and others. He has also written soundtracks for numerous film, TV, and live performance theatre projects.

Biography

Daniel Biro was born in Johannesburg (South Africa) in 1963. His parents, originally from Hungary and Croatia which they fled during World War 2, moved from country to country and Daniel and his older brother Nicholas grew up first in Rome (Italy) until 1968 before moving to London (UK) for two years, then back to Italy, to Milan and finally, in 1972, to Menton in the South of France. Previously of South African nationality, the whole family became French nationals in 1978.

Daniel started playing the piano at the age of nine and, at twelve, became one the youngest members of the Conservatoire de Jazz of Monaco where he studied for eight years under the direction of Belgian saxophonist Roger Grosjean. Many prominent jazz artists like Barney Wilen and Karel Ruzicka visited the school for concerts and workshops. While in high school he started various jazz/rock/pop bands, playing his own compositions and extending his instrumentation to include electric keyboards, especially the Fender Rhodes electric piano, and early synthesisers. He also joined with the local high-school theatre group, writing the music for their yearly plays. He passed his Baccalaureat A (literary) in 1982 and then spent 3 years for a music degree at Nice University.

In 1985 he decided to move to London with his then bandmates ('I.C.') to try to conquer the UK scene. It quickly became apparent that this was not going to happen, so his band members returned to France while Daniel decided to soldier on alone, with some support from his uncle Prof. Igor Aleksander. To sustain himself, Daniel played piano in restaurants, bars and hotels, while at the same time making new contacts and friends with London artists. He also auditioned as a keyboard player and landed a job with Dennis Greaves' band The Truth with whom he toured the US for six months in 1987. Another gig came with EMI-signed band Big Bam Boo for UK and European tours.

In 1993 he decided to create the record label Sargasso, mainly to release his own music, starting with his first instrumental album 'Soho Square' which collected music written for choreographer Jane Turner and her contemporary dance company Turning Worlds. This collaboration lasted many years, crystallising in the creation of an arts group called LUST which included dancers, musicians, poets and theatre performers. With LUST, Daniel organised many live events and festivals in the UK and Europe. He also started working with French singer songwriter and old high-school friend Véronique Joly, forming the band L'Orange which ran until 2003. In 2001, he and Jane were invited for a residency at CAMAC, a newly set up arts/science residency centre in the French Champagne region, to develop their ideas in Emergence, the science theory about self-organising patterns and chaos and complexity. This led to the development of a new technological system for performers to create works based on emergent properties where simple commands create complex results. Performances using purpose developed software, laptops, Bluetooth headsets and pressure sensitive floor pads were premiered at London's ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts) and at CAMAC. Eventually Daniel was asked to become CAMAC's president, a post which he held until 2015.

Over the years, the Sargasso label grew to include composers like John Palmer, Lawrence Casserley, Vinko Globokar, Evelyn Ficarra, Violeta Dinescu, Simon Emmerson, Natascha Barrett, Marcus Stockhausen and especially Jonathan Harvey with whom Daniel developed a deep friendship until his untimely passing in 2012. The label evolved to specialise in experimental contemporary music for established and up-and-coming composers, as well as continuing to be a vehicle for Daniel's recording projects.

Ever since his high school theatre days, Daniel has always been drawn to write music for live performances and film. This has led to him scoring many theatre plays, experimental shorts and features like the 2014 Sundance-selected film by Kivu Ruhorahoza 'Things of the Endless Wanderer'. His most recent collaboration has been with award-winning director David Shulman on the documentaries 'Auschwitz Untold in Color' (Channel 4, History Channel) and 'NFT:WTF?' (Netflix).

In 2007 Daniel's older brother Nicholas (Nico), who was living in Florida, died of alcohol-related illness. This had a major impact on Daniel and especially his parents who were devastated and never really recovered from the shock. They relocated from Nice to London so Daniel could look after them before their passing in 2018 and 2020, just as the Covid 19 pandemic broke out. As a cathartic response and self-imposed challenge, Daniel embarked on a series of lockdown-induced online livestream concerts from his home-studio in London. These solo keyboard improvisations called 'Synthropsections' became a series of ten recordings released between 2022 and 2023. They represented a culmination of Daniel's combined interests of spur-of-the-moment pure improvisation and hands-on use of his arsenal of vintage analog synthesisers and beloved Rhodes piano.

When he was 14 years old Daniel attended a Summer music camp in Les Arcs in the French Alps. Here he met bass player and vocalist Colin Bass who, together with band-leader Jim Cuomo, was leading student workshops. They became friends and stayed in touch over the years, reconnecting when Daniel moved to London in 1985. Colin had become a prominent member of prog band Camel. In 2018 they had the idea of collaborating on a song album project where each of them would contribute compositions. This led to the release in 2020 of 'Still' and, having enjoyed the experience enough to repeat it, of 'More' in 2024, this time featuring substantial guitar contributions by Camel leader Andy Latimer.

Another on-going fruitful collaboration is with UK painter/sculptor David Breuer-Weil, whose selected drawings were included in Daniel's album 'Songs of Refuge' CD booklet (2012), and who recently created an epic series of large-scale 70 pencil and gold leaf drawings called 'The Coviad', depicting the personal and global Covid 19 pandemic experience. The drawings' mesmerising surreal and symbolic imagery inspired Daniel to write a one-hour electronic score to accompany the drawings. 'Music For The Coviad' was released on Sargasso in 2022.

Currently, Daniel is busy writing music for Italian flute virtuoso Sara Minelli. 'The Difficulty of Being' is planned for release end of 2024.

Musical Influences

Daniel grew up listening to a wide range of music, mainly inspired by what his older brother Nicholas brought home in the early 1970s. He serious musical interest started with Motown (James Brown, The Temptations, Stevie Wonder) and West Coast rock (Steely Dan, James Taylor) before getting hooked on more Progressive Rock: Pink Floyd (whose Rick Wright in 'Live in Pompei' originally made him want to play electronic keyboards), Tangerine Dream, Vangelis, Mike Oldfield, Yes and even Alice Cooper. Then, after hearing Chick Corea's 'Return To Forever' album, he veered into all things jazz-rock: Mahavishnu Orchestra, Weather Report, Return to Forever, Herbie Hancock, Santana, Jean-Luc Ponty etc. as well as the more European ambient jazz of the German ECM label. Later he discovered minimalists Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Brian Eno, Jon Hassell. He has also always been a regular listener of intelligent pop/rock/dance like Peter Gabriel, New Order, David Sylvian, Pet Shop Boys as well as Italians French artists.

But pianistically, ever since his mother bought him a ticket to see him play live at the Menton Music Festival in 1976, Keith Jarrett has been his idol and major inspirational figure.

Private Life

Daniel married Italian micro-biologist Angela Bizzarri in 2008. They live in London with their three children Gabriel, Joel and Eliana.

Discography

• More (with Colin Bass) - CD (Sargasso) - 2024
• Hotel Erika - CD (Sargasso) - 2024
• Synthrospections 8 to 10 - digital (Sargasso) - 2023
• Music For The Coviad - digital and physical (Sargasso) - 2022
• Synthrospections 5 to 7 - digital (Sargasso) - 2022
• Longing For The Dawn (with Mysteries Of The Revolution) - CD (Blue Serene Focus) - 2022
• Synthrospections 1 to 4 - digital (Sargasso) - 2021
• Still (with Colin Bass) - CD (Sargasso) - 2020
• I’ll Be Here (with Echo Engine) - CD (Blue Serene Focus) - 2019
• 120 Onetwenty - CD (SCDB54001) - 2018
• Things of the Aimless Wanderer  - digital (SCD28080) - 2015
• You Turn Me On (with Mysteries of the Revolution) - digital (Blue Serene Focus) - 2014
• Shir Hadash - CD (Sargasso SCD28076) - 2014
• Windjammer (with Echo Engine) - CD (Blue Serene Focus) - 2014
• Songs Of Refuge - CD (Sargasso SCD28069) - 2012
• A Still, Thin Sound - CD (Sargasso SCD28063) - 2009
• Mysteries Of The Revolution (with Mysteries of the Revolution) - CD (Blue Serene Focus) - 2007
• The Long Journey Home (with Rob Palmer) - CD (Sargasso SCD28050) - 2004
• 2 People in a Room - (with L'Orange) - CD (Sargasso SSD39011) - 2002
• Elegant Enigmas – CD (Sargasso SCD28028) - 1999
• The Comparative Anatomy of Angels - CD (Sargasso SCD28022) - 1996
• Soho Square – CD (Sargasso SCD28021) - 1993

Selected film and TV soundtracks:

• NFT:WTF? (Netflix - 2024)
• De Gaulle - Une Genèse dans le Nord (France - 2021)
• Barack Obama Talks to David Olusoga (BBC 1 - 2020)
• Auschwitz Untold (Channel 4 / The History Channel - 2019)
• Things of the Aimless Wanderer (2014)
• Chemins de Mémoire (France - 2012)
• Carrément Cornichon (France - 2012)
• Rêve de Sable (France - 2011)
• Parce Que Vous Ne Valez Rien (France - 2008)
• Bio-Attitude Sans Béatitude (France - 2006)
• Sous La Barbe de St Nicholas (France - 2006)
• In 2 Minds (BBC 1 - 2003)

Selected Music for Dance and Theatre:

• Members Only
• HalfLife
• Dead Man's Coat
• Hybrid
• Pedalo
• W.C.
• Firelines
• Desert
• No Strings Attached
• The Woman Downstairs
• Horace
• 3 plays by Yeats
• Beauty and the Beast
• Soho Square
• Still Point of the Turning World

External Links

• Official website: http://www.danielbiro.com
• Sargasso: http://www.sargasso.com