DAAU biography

article found on : sonyclassical.com

With WE NEED NEW ANIMALS, DAAU (Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung (The Anarchistic Evening Entertainment)) are stepping out, six years after the band's first modest concert in their hometown of Antwerp. WE NEED NEW ANIMALS is DAAU's first international release on Sony Classical.

Receiving a great deal of attention from press and public, DAAU have continued to captivate young pop fans who recognise the same qualities that they found in rock and dance music. Older music-lovers were astonished by the virtuoso playing and praised their original, fresh sound.

Originality is clearly in evidence in the music of Roel Van Camp (24, accordion), Han Stubbe (22, clarinet), Simon Lenski (21, cello) and his brother Buni (22, violin). Each of the members had classical training, but DAAU did not emerge in a traditional classical manner. For them, the group was an exploration: a means of escaping from the classroom, and of allowing the musical knowledge they had acquired, ripen in the belly of life.

DAAU was founded almost by accident in 1992, when Roel Van Camp needed a backing group for a concert. "With our acoustic instruments we couldn't play as loud as rock groups," says Roel. "Something else was needed.

That's why we went on to play faster, and more fiercely." At that time they were playing mainly short improvisations, incorporating musical references from Pachelbel, The Beatles and Vivaldi.

Improvisation and an eclectic approach immediately became the trademark of the group. "Listeners from the classical world find us an interesting object of study," Han used to say in those early days. "The frontiers between pop and classical music are getting fuzzy and if we can all work together on that, a great dream will come to fruition."

DAAU takes its name from the German writer Herman Hesse's novel Der Steppenwolf. When asked to describe their method of improvisational composition, the band refers to a quote from Der Steppenwolf: "I was unable to write that music, it was still strange to me and its frontiers unknown to me, but I could certainly hear it."

As the plaudits grew, DAAU decided to record their music. They began a partnership with English sound man Phil Evans, who was working in Leeds mainly with dance music. With the group also involved in contemporary pop music, DAAU and Phil Evans decided to blend both musical worlds together.

In the Summer of 1997, they experimented with electronic amplification of their instruments. "It was a master plan," says Phil Evans. "We first wanted to get familiar with the new sounds and possibilities. We set off for La Coruna in Spain, so we could rehearse acoustic playing all over again. The high point was a live concert in the church of San Eduardo there, where we recorded most of the pieces acoustically and live. We only brought both [acoustic and electric] approaches together afterwards in the studio in Ronda, Malaga."

Michael Brook, who was working with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Brian Eno and Khaled, heard the tapes. "I felt attracted by the mix of acoustic and electronic colours. There was a lot of rambling, but the melodies and ideas were extremely good," he says. In Los Angeles he replaced rhythm tracks with recordings of jazz drummer Jason Lewis, and then he set off with the group to the Real World Studio in Bath to mix the numbers.

The result was the real beginning for the group. "We thought more carefully about things, and certain accidental factors helped to shape the disc." In Oliphant, we hear Buni's love of reggae music popping up.

Roel's interest in Flamenco music appears in Hot Shades.

Above all, WE NEED NEW ANIMALS represents the music of four people and their different emotions. The CD opens with No Rule, the oldest number and a favourite at concerts. "It is one of our many sad numbers," says Roel; "but the music evolves towards relief. It grows to a real climax where we play as loud as possible, and then quietly die away."

Oliphant and Hot Shades are also built on stark contrasts. Simon says of Oliphant (a track that starts off very sweetly but soon gets roughly disturbed): "You have to see with your own eyes that there is so much in the world that is ugly and bad." And Roel adds: "Something that's beautiful becomes even more so if it was once ugly."

Other numbers build mainly on one idea. Nix is a little piece of fast-playing fun, while Gin & Tonic shows how cleverly the group can arouse a feeling of trance with very limited material.

Waltz Delire, a piece by David Bouvé and unusual for DAAU, also builds strongly on repetition albeit on a more complex theme this time. The degree to which the group can also work emotionally can be heard from the closing number, Lost Souls, which floats along on accordion and cello alone. The piece that precedes it, Lady Delay, is a real counterpart to it: fast and psychedelic, it aims to arouse a feeling of trance.

The group enlisted the help of two women singers for the CD. An Pierlé, an emerging singer from Antwerp, is featured on Broken; a song written from an improvisation in the Summer of 1996. Dip 'n' dodge features Jamaican singer Angélique Wilkie, a former member from the world-famous quintet Zap Mama.

With WE NEED NEW ANIMALS, DAAU show themselves to be ambitious and challenging, naïve and virtuoso. The quartet want to make original pop music without sacrificing their classical background. They aim to create a musical atmosphere. "We are like a car that tries to go in four different directions at the same time," Buni once said.

DAAU

- press in dutch / prensa en neerlandés :

muziekcentrum.be - the travelguide
reisboeken.be - the travelguide
gomagazine.nl - the travelguide, the release party
telenet.be - the travelguide
telenet.be - Ronda Personal
3voor12.vpro.nl - the release party
20six.nl/neskebeks - release party
de volkskrant - deus in ronda
deus in ronda pics
kindamuzic - het andere andalucia
belpop.com - kleintje andaloes
cucamonga - deus ex machina
kwadratuur - cd-bespreking
knack - ideal crash bespreking
geschiedenis belgische muziekindustrie
Ronda - Het Laatste Nieuws

- press in spanish + french
- prensa en espanol y francés:

indyrock.es - Think Of One
indyrock.es - vive La Fete
indyrock.es - dEUS
le cargo - interview deus
mondosonoro - dEUS
indyrock.es - DAAU
dpm-cultura.org - DAAU
mtv.es - Francoiz Breut
turismoderonda.es - Ronda Personal
andalucia24horas.com - Ronda Personal
clubcultura.com - Ronda Personal

- press in english / prensa en ingles :

mondomix - daau
biography - daau
interview tom barman


hotel enfrente arte - Un hotel con encanto en Ronda