Daniel Biro (composer, musician)

Daniel Andrew Biro (born 1963) is a composer, keyboard player, songwriter and producer based in London. He is the founder of the Sargasso record label, established in 1993. Biro (pronounced Bee-ro) has released over 25 albums of original music as a solo artist and in collaboration with bands such as Mysteries of the Revolution (with Peter BB Davis), Echo Engine (with Rob Palmer), and Colin Bass (member of prog band Camel). His music is at the crossroads between electronic, ambient, experimental, jazz-fusion, progressive rock and is mainly instrumental, although he has also written many songs for collaborative projects. Biro's sound is built around his use of the Rhodes electric piano and vintage analogue synthesisers. He has also composed soundtracks for various film, TV, and live performance theatre projects.

Daniel Biro in his studio (2022)

Early Life and Education

Daniel Biro was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1963. His parents, originally from Hungary and Croatia, fled their home countries during World War II. They and their two sons Nicholas and Daniel moved frequently, living in Rome, Italy, until 1968, then in London, UK, for two years, then Milan, Italy, and later in Menton, France, in 1972. The family became French nationals in 1978.

Biro began playing the piano at the age of nine and, by twelve, was one of the youngest members of the Monaco Jazz Conservatory, where he studied for eight years under Belgian saxophonist Roger Grosjean. There he was exposed to many prominent jazz artists like Barney Wilen and Karel Ruzicka through concerts and workshops at the school. During his high school years, he formed various jazz/rock/pop bands playing original compositions and extended his instrumentation to include electric keyboards, particularly the Fender Rhodes electric piano and early synthesizers. He also wrote music for the local high school theater group's yearly plays. Biro earned his Baccalauréat A (literary) in 1982 and spent three years pursuing a music degree at Nice University. In 1984 he was a finalist in the International Competition of Jazz Composition of Monaco.

Career

In 1985, Biro moved to London with his band I.C. to establish a presence in the UK music scene, though the band dissolved shortly after. Biro remained in London and sustained himself by playing piano in restaurants, bars, and hotels while making new connections in the London art scene. He landed gigs as a touring keyboard player, first with Dennis Greaves' band The Truth on a 1987 US tour, and later with the EMI-signed band Big Bam Boo on UK and European tours.

In 1993, Biro founded the Sargasso record label to primarily to release his music, starting with his first instrumental electronic album Soho Square, which featured music written for choreographer Jane Turner's dance company Turning Worlds. This collaboration led to the formation of the arts group LUST that included dancers, musicians, poets and theatre performers. LUST organised numerous live events and festivals in the UK and Europe. Biro also formed the band L'Orange with French vocalist Véronique Joly, active until 2003.

Biro's work with Jane Turner on the theory of Emergence led to a residency at CAMAC (Centre d'Art Marnay Arts Centre), a French arts/science centre, in 2004, where they developed performances using emergent properties and new technological systems. Their work E-Merge was premiered at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts in 2006. Biro also served as CAMAC's president until 2015. Over the years, the Sargasso label evolved to specialise in experimental contemporary music while continuing to release Biro's own recording projects. Other composers included John Palmer, Lawrence Casserley, Vinko Globokar, Natascha Barrett, Violeta Dinescu, Jonty Harrison, Simon Emmerson, and Jonathan Harvey with whom he developed a close friendship until Harvey's death in 2012.

Biro has composed music for numerous theatre and film projects, including the 2014 Sundance-selected film Things of the Endless Wanderer by Kivu Ruhorahoza. A long-term collaborator has been French director and high-school friend Olivier Sarrazin, for whom Biro has scored many films for French TV. More recently, he has worked with director David Shulman on documentaries such as Auschwitz Untold in Color (Channel 4, History Channel) and NFT: WTF? (Netflix).

In 2007, Biro's older brother Nicholas (Nico) passed away, impacting Biro and prompting his parents' relocation from Nice to London until their deaths in 2018 and 2020. In response to these personal losses and the COVID-19 pandemic, Biro performed a series of online livestream improvised solo keyboard concerts titled Synthropsections, released as ten recordings between 2021 and 2023.

Biro's long-standing friendship with bassist/vocalist Colin Bass of the band Camel resulted in the collaborative song albums Still (2020) and More (2024), which also features Camel leader Andy Latimer on guitar.

Biro has also collaborated with artist David Breuer-Weil, who inspired the album Music For The Coviad (2022), a one-hour electronic score accompanying Breuer-Weil's epic set of drawings depicting the COVID-19 pandemic experience.

In 2023 Biro worked on a new solo project based on his memories of childhood family holidays in the Slovenian alps. 'Hotel Erika' was released in March 2024.

Biro is currently working on an album with Italian flautist Sara Minelli, titled The Difficulty of Being, set for release in late 2024.

Musical Influences

Biro's early 1970s musical influences include Motown (James Brown, The Temptations, Stevie Wonder) and West Coast rock (Steely Dan, James Taylor), progressive rock like Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream, Vangelis, Mike Oldfield, Yes, and jazz-rock fusion (Chick Corea's Return to Forever, Weather Report, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Herbie Hancock, Santana). His later influences include the European ambient-jazz label ECM and minimalists like Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Jon Hassell, Brian Eno. He is also a regular listener of intelligent pop/rock/dance like Peter Gabriel, New Order, David Sylvian, Pet Shop Boys as well as Italian and French songwriters. However, his primary inspiration as a pianist is Keith Jarrett.

Private Life

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

Discography

Solo:

• Soho Square (1993)
• The Comparative Anatomy of Angels (1996)
• Elegant Enigmas (1999)
• A Still, Thin Sound (2009)
• Songs Of Refuge (2012)
• Shir Hadash (2014)
• Things of the Aimless Wanderer  (2015)
• 120 Onetwenty (2018)
• Synthrospections 1 to 4 (2021)
• Synthrospections 5 to 7 (2022)
• Music For The Coviad (2022)
• Synthrospections 8 to 10 (2023)
• Hotel Erika (2024)

with Colin Bass:

• Still (2020)
• More (2024)

with Mysteries of the Revolution:

• Mysteries Of The Revolution (2007)
• Longing For The Dawn (2022)

with Echo Engine:

• Windjammer (2014)
• I’ll Be Here (2019)

with Rob Palmer:

• The Long Journey Home (2004)

with L’Orange

• 2 People in a Room (2002)
• A Fruitful Past - Vol. 1 - The French Demos (2022)
• A Fruitful Past - Vol. 2 - The English Demos (2022)

Selected film and TV soundtracks:

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

External Links

• Official website: http://www.danielbiro.com
• Sargasso: http://www.sargasso.com
• Daniel Biro on Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/artist/247504-Daniel-Biro
• Daniel Biro on IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2066797/
• Daniel Biro YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@DanielBiroMusic