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The Comparative Anatomy of Angels (2020 Remaster)

by Daniel Biro

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1.
The Comparative Anatomy of Angels - Mikael 04:26
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2.
The Comparative Anatomy of Angels - Azrael 04:28
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3.
The Comparative Anatomy of Angels - Gabriel 04:28
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4.
Beba in White 13:54
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5.
Strange Attractor 1 04:09
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6.
Strange Attractor 2 06:39
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7.
With These Gloves You Will Enter Mirrors Like Water 22:00
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8.
No Strings Attached (Bonus Track ) 09:09
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about

‘The Comparative Anatomy of Angels’ was composed in 1995 and was performed at various festivals in the UK and abroad. The singers portray three important Biblical angels - Mikael, Azrael and Gabriel as described in classic scriptural commentaries. These descriptions with their millions eyes, wings and languages made me think of today's vast technological networks which we use as our ‘angels’ to send and receive vital information: The Word.

The music is structured around the number three: three voices, three notes per voice part, 3/4 rhythms, 3X30=90 bars per part, and so on. The voices, following an underlying percussion track which provides the basic pulse, are treated more like individual solos, as opposed to a more choral approach, allowing the listeners' attention to focus on one singer at a time or all three together.

Mikael
The sun, The light, Shining armour
Wings of green topaz
Each hair has a million faces
Each face has a million tongues, and a million eyes Each tongue speaks a million languages
And from each eye fall seventy thousand tears.

Azrael
The love of death
Veiled with a million faces
Four wings, four faces
One in front, one above, one behind, one below The body covered with a million eyes
When one eye closes a creature dies.

Gabriel
The Message, the Word
A necklace of rubies
A thousand six hundred wings
Each hair has the brightness of the moon and the stars Entering the ocean of light three hundred and sixty times a day A million drops fall from each wing to become angels.

***

Three different types of guitars are used in ‘Beba in White’: acoustic, electric and electric with effects. By using only strumming and picking, I wanted to explore the essential nature of pop/rock guitar playing and enjoy the harmonic and rhythmic content of the music, rather than having a melody/accompaniment format. Each guitar plays a cycle of six chords in three different ranges that are repeated at different intervals, so as never to have quite the same harmonic combination.

‘Beba in White’ is in fact the soundtrack to a silent film, a collage I made from old 1930s family black and white reels the belonged to my great-aunt Beba. The images are mainly set in stylish alpine health resorts and are a poignant testimony to a vanished era and a ghostly glimpse into the joys of past lives. The calm before the storm of 1939.

***

‘Strange Attractor I & II’ are two Rhodes electric piano improvisations that attempt to reveal the instrument’s extraordinary bell-like tones.

***

‘With These Gloves You Will Enter Mirrors Like Water’ is a quote from Jean Cocteau’s classic 1949 film ‘Orphée’. In Cocteau's mythology mirrors are the doors through which Death comes and goes: "Look into a mirror and you will see Death at work like bees in a hive". In the film the character of Orpheus is given special rubber gloves which allow him to pass through mirrors to rescue his wife Eurydice from the Underworld. Orpheus is lured to the Underworld by strange and surreal messages received by his car radio (which was inspired by the cryptic coded messages sent to the WW2 French Resistance). The piece's lyrical content is based on this imagery.

Using a symmetrical (mirror-image) sequence of ten chords, the music explores the various possible treatments of these chords and constructs an equally symmetrical path. The content is always the same but the form changes. Like the voices in the ‘Angels’ piece, the string quartet parts were written more like four solo parts rather than an accompaniment to the voice.

This piece was a tribute to Cocteau on the 30th anniversary of his death, and it premiered in London's Notre Dame de France - the church which houses Cocteau's stunning 1960 mural.
Having grown up in the south of France where Cocteau lived and worked, his work remains an endless source of inspiration to me.

Le silence va plus vite à reculons
Un seul verre d’eau éclaire le monde
L’oiseau chante avec ses doigts
Le crêpe des petites veuves est un vrai déjeuner de soleil Jupiter rend sage ceux qu’il veut perdre
Le ciel nocturne est une haie de Mai
Les miroirs feraient bien de réfléchir d’avantage
Avec / ces / gants / vous / traverserez / les / miroirs / comme /de / l’eau La Mort travaille / dans les miroirs
Elle est notre jeunesse, Elle est notre croissance, Elle est nos amours
Plus je m’écourte,
Plus elle s’allonge
Plus else prend ses aises
Plus elle s’agite pour bien des choses
Plus elle se livre à ses menus travaux
Elle se donne de moins en moins la peine de nous rendre dupe Mais sa gloire est quand on cesse
Elle peut sortir et nous ferme à clef

***

‘No Strings Attached’ was written for performance poet Kelly Pennhaligon’s work about cutting lines of communication. It was first presented as part of the LUSTful Festival at London’s ICA in October 1996.

© Daniel Biro 2020
Original album released in 1996
This is the definitive version edited and remastered by Daniel Biro.

credits

released December 19, 2020

The Comparative Anatomy Of Angels:
Véronique Joly- voice
Cathryn Robson - voice
Lucie Robson - voice
Daniel Biro - drums programming and organ

Beba in White:
Simon Scardanelli - acoustic guitar Steve Swift - electric guitar
Patrick Tedd - electric guitar Daniel Biro - drums programming

Strange Attractor I & II:
Daniel Biro - Rhodes electric piano

With These Gloves You Will Enter Mirrors Like Water:
Véronique Joly - voice Daniel Biro - synthesizer The Sterling String Quartet
Megan Pound - violin Rebecca Jones - violin John Rayson - viola Brian Mullan - cello

No Strings Attached (Bonus Track):
Daniel Biro - all instruments

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Daniel Biro London, UK

Composer, keyboard player, producer, improvisor, songwriter, sound designer who loves the Rhodes electric piano + analog synths and makes jazz-fusion / electronic / ambient / art-prog / experimental music. From solo projects to working with his bands Echo Engine and Mysteries Of The Revolution, to film soundtracks, Daniel's unique cosmopolitan sound is at the centre of his multi-faceted universe. ... more

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