“Dust is my sound manifesto,” writes Daniel Pioro. His debut album brings together music written for him by Valgeir Sigurðsson, Edmund Finnis and Oliver Coates with works by Biber and Ralph Vaughan Williams.
Sigurðsson’s three-part title work explores the meeting of violin and electronics. The album closes with The Lark Ascending, performed by Pioro with Clare O’Connell on cello, Liam Byrne on viola da gamba and James McVinnie on organ.
Music and composers
- Dust — I. Cosmos / II. Particles / III. Rest — Valgeir Sigurðsson
- Elsewhere — Edmund Finnis
- Passacaglia — Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber
- Dark Sky Community — Oliver Coates
- The Lark Ascending — Ralph Vaughan Williams; arranged by Daniel Pioro
Performance and recording credits
- Daniel Pioro — violin
- Dust: Valgeir Sigurðsson — electronics; Francesco Fabris — additional programming
- The Lark Ascending: Clare O’Connell — cello; Liam Byrne — viola da gamba; James McVinnie — organ; Daniel Halford — engineering
- Dark Sky Community: Oliver Coates — electronics, production and engineering
- Elsewhere and Passacaglia: Francesco Fabris — engineering
Album produced, mixed and mastered by Valgeir Sigurðsson at Greenhouse Studios, Reykjavík.
A note by Daniel Pioro
Dust is my sound manifesto. A short and simple introduction to my needs in music, and the sound world I inhabit. It is just a beginning, and even as I write this I hear and feel what I’d do differently now, how much further there is to go with the violin, with breath, with electronics, and with silence.
Dust is also an album of deep gratitude. Nothing that I do of any worth is done in isolation and over the year that this album was recorded and the years that I lived with it in my head (long before the microphones were switched on and long after they were put away), I was guided, pushed, supported, and provoked by a group of very special people.
Thank you to Charles and Georgina for inspiring me
Thank you to Penny and Andrew for helping me
Thank you to Sally for provoking me
Thank you to Henrietta for uncompromising clarity and support
Thank you to Elizabeth who has championed my sound on the airwaves
Thank you to Colm, Francesco, and all at Bedroom Community who have helped this collection of sounds take shape
Thank you to Clare, to Liam, to James, to Chrysanthemum Bear, who make me greater than I could be without them
and thank you to Oliver, Edmund, and Valgeir who created music for me to dive deeply into and make my own in the process.
— Daniel Pioro