Daniel Biro

Daniel Biro (born 1963 in Johannesburg, South Africa) is a London-based keyboard composer, keyboard player, improvisor, and producer. Stylistically, Biro's music is a combination of his early influences (70s jazz-rock, Berlin-style cosmic synths, ECM label-style jazz, Motown soul and West-coast rock) with more experimental ambient electronic minimalism. As an improvisor, Biro specializes in exploring the sonic depths of the Rhodes piano and vintage analog synthesizers, with which he performs regularly.

Early life and education

Since fleeing their Eastern European countries of Hungary and Croatia due to World War 2, Biro’s parents moved regularly from country to country. Born in Johannesburg (South Africa), Biro spent his early years in Rome (Italy), London (UK), Milan (Italy) and from the age of 9, in Menton (France) where he lived until the age of 22. He studied for 8 years at the Jazz Conservatory of Monaco under the direction of Roger Grosjean and, after completing a Literary Baccalauréat and three years at Nice University (France), he moved to London (UK) in 1985 where he has been living ever since.

Music

In the 1980s and 90s, Biro formed various pop-rock bands such as the electro outfit IC and L'Orange with French vocalist songwriter Véronique Joly. He also toured worldwide as a keyboard player with Dennis Greaves' The Truth and EMI-signed Big Bam Boo. He has also been very much involved with contemporary dance collaborations, notably with choreographer Jane Turner with whom he explored and developed new real-time interactive dancers/musicians technologies based on Emergence Theory, where simple rules generate complex results.

In 1993, Biro founded Sargasso Records to promote contemporary experimental music artists. Composers on the label include the late Jonathan Harvey, Lawrence Casserley, Violeta Dinescu, John McGuire, Simon Emmerson, John Palmer and more. He has released his own music on the label since then.

Biro was a founding member of jazz/prog/psychedelic band Mysteries of the Revolution formed together with multi-instrumentalist Peter BB Davis, as well as ambient/jazz/electronic/improv outfit Echo Engine with guitarist Rob Palmer, sound-designer Adrian Newton and various guest artists such as saxophonist/flautist Theo Travis. The two bands have released several albums.

As a singer-songwriter released the album 'Songs of Refuge' (Sargasso) in 2012. In 2020 he collaborated with prog band Camel's bass player and vocalist Colin Bass on the album of ambient songs 'Still'. Their work together is on-going.

His first album of totally solo keyboards '120 OneTwenty' was released in 2018. This was the start of his solo keyboard projects which, prompted by the Covid pandemic lockdowns, took the shape of as a series of monthly livestream solo concerts called 'Synthrospections' from Biro's home studio in London. These are totally improvised one-off synth/keyboard sessions, using Biro's collection of vintage analog keyboards. Each concert is recorded then released as a digital album on Sargasso a few days later.

In 2021 Biro remastered and re-released digitally all his early albums.

In 2022, Biro released 'Music for The Coviad' to accompany a monumental series of drawings by London artist David Breuer-Weil. The drawings, inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry and of the same size, recount the Covid pandemic events with fantastical, surreal imagery.Biro and Breur-Weil are planning a film about their collaboration.

He is not the Daniel Biro from Hawk Nelson.

Film

Biro has written numerous soundtracks for TV documentaries by French director Olivier Sarrazin, experimental shorts and, in 2014, the award-winning 'Things of the Aimless Wanderer' by Rwandan director Kivu Ruhorahoza. The film was part of the official selection at the Sundance, Rotterdam, Durban, Sydney and London Film Africa festivals in 2015.

In 2020 he composed music for the Channel 4/History Channel documentary 'Auschwitz Untold - In Color' directed by David Shulman as well as 'DeGaulle - Une Genèse Dans le Nord' documentary for French TV followed, in 2021 by BBC's 'Barack Obama Talks To David Olusoga' interview programme. Biro has also directed many videos and short films himself, often to accompany his music.

Selected works

Performed Compositions:

  • Shir Hadash (2009) for 5 male voices, electric piano and electronics
  • A Thin, Still Sound (2008) for bass clarinet and live electronics
  • e-Merge (2004) for 5 voices and e-Merge computer system
  • Black Fire On White Fire (2003) for amplified calligraphy, voice, 7 clarinets and electronics
  • Re-sound (2000) for electric piano and tape
  • Elegant Enigmas (1999) for harpsichord and electric piano
  • Slow, Flow, Blow (1998) for 7 clarinets
  • The Comparative Anatomy of Angels (1996) for 3 voices and tape
  • Beba in White (1995) for 3 electric guitars and tape
  • With These Gloves You Will Enter Mirrors Like Water (1995) for voice, string 4tet and synthesizer

For Contemporary Dance Performances:

  • e-Merge
  • Hybrid
  • Desert
  • Beauty And The Beast
  • Soho Square
  • A Still Point Of The Turning World

For Theatre:

  • Membres Only
  • HalfLife
  • Dead Man's Coat
  • Pedalo
  • W.C.
  • Firelines
  • No Strings Attached
  • The Woman Downstairs
  • Horace
  • 3 Plays by Yeats

For Film:

  • Things of the Aimless Wanderer
  • Poolside
  • The Incandescence Of One Man's Journey To Remain A Solid Object
  • Carey Jones Architects
  • 4014
  • Book of Dust
  • Lessons in How to Wear Red
  • Wrap Me In Film
  • Death Leap
  • Viva Il Reggimento

For Television:

  • Barack Obama Talks To David Olusoga (BBC) - 2021
  • DeGaulle - Une Genèse Dans le Nord (French TV)- 2020
  • Auschwitz Untold - In Color (Channel 4 / History Channel) - 2020
  • Carrément Cornichon (French TV) - 2012
  • Rêves De Sable (French TV) 2011
  • Bioattitude Sans Béatitude (French TV) - 2008
  • Parce Que Vous Ne Valez Rien (French TV) - 2007
  • Sous La Barbe De St Nicholas (French TV) - 2006
  • In 2 Minds (BBC) - 2003

As Film Director: Various music videos for himself and his band Mysteries of the Revolution

  • Poolside – (2010)
  • The Pinocchio Files – (2010)
  • In Light (2009)
  • O2:2:CO2 (Day, Night, People, River) – (2009)
  • The Incandescence Of One Man's Journey To Remain A Solid Object – (2008)
  • Carey Jones Architects – (2007)

Discography
  • Music For The Coviad (2022) – Sargasso SCDB54021
  • Longing For The Dawn (with Mysteries Of The Revolution) (2022) – Blue Serene Focus BSF1001/14
  • Synthrospections (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10) (2021/2022/2023) – Sargasso SCDB54014/SCDB54015/SCDB54016/SCDB54017/SCDB54018/SCDB54019/SCDB54020/SCDB54023
  • Still (2020) – with Colin Bass – Sargasso SCDB54002
  • I'll Be Here (with Echo Engine) (2019) – Blue Serene Focus BSF1001/13
  • 120 Onetwenty (2018) – Sargasso SCDB54001
  • Things of the Aimless Wanderer (Film Soundtrack) (2015) – Sargasso 28080
  • Windjammer (with Echo Engine) (2014) – Blue Serene Focus BSF1001/12
  • You Turn Me On EP (with Mysteries Of The Revolution) (2014) – Blue Serene Focus BSF1001/11
  • Shir Hadash – Sargasso SCD28076
  • Songs Of Refuge (2012) – Sargasso SCD28069
  • A Still, Thin Sound (2009) – Sargasso SCD28063
  • Mysteries Of The Revolution (2007) – Blue Serene Focus BSF1001/10
  • The Long Journey Home (with Rob Palmer) (2004) – Sargasso SCD28050
  • 2 People In A Room (with L'Orange) (2002) – Sargasso SSD39011
  • Elegant Enigmas (1999) – Sargasso SCD28028
  • The Comparative Anatomy Of Angels (1996) – Sargasso SCD28022
  • Soho Square (1993) – Sargasso SCD28021
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