CNVR08
release date: 13.Mar.2006

DAN WARBURTON & TU M' - Missing in Africa

Phosphor #120

Which sounds can be generated by a violin? Dan Warburton and both his laptop colleagues Rossano Polidoro and Emiliano Romanelli explore the possibities of this instrument. The result is diversified, varying between a melancholic end, repetitive pizzicato and African experiments.
The opening of the album can be considered as a rather re-looped improv. session with returning concrete sounds. It's not what you would call easy-listening music. But as soon as a calm African atmosphere lurks around the corner, like for instance during the sixth and seventh track, things get more enjoyable.
This CD is different from previous Conv releases, discovering new territories, but a direction that can only satisfy the die-hards in experimental music.

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Vital Weekly #519

A while ago I made the mistake of calling Dan Warburton an American in Paris, but he's actually from the UK. Besides doing an excellent website of reviews (Transatlantic), he is also a musician himself, mainly on the violin. Here he works together with Italy's Tu M', a most active duo who have various releases available on various labels, such as Fallt and ERS. The press statement is not very clear about this, but somehow I don't think they played together in making this release. It has 'all tracks sourced in recordings by Maikol Seminatore, May 17th 2003. Live processing recorded entirely from samples of violin'. So rather than having two Italians on their laptops and one guy with a violin, I assume Tu M' fools around with recordings of Dan's violin playing, mainly looping them around (does the text really suggests it's just the programm fruity loops?). Cut them short, making them a little bit longer and than shorter again. I must admit I wasn't overtly impressed by this. I would have hoped for some more live action or better inter-action between the musicians. The best piece was he final 'Missing In The Dark Forest', in which sadly the violin disappears but at least there is some interesting music to be discovered.

[ Frans de Waard ]

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