tracklist

01 bells ot

02 dingle

03 milky one wide noise

04 breakfast or mona

05 7.0

06 oilbo

07 ajaja

all tracks written by david minor, geoffrey pope and me raabenstein,
produced and mixed by me raabenstein.

mastered by shapemod, berlin

artwork by simonraabenstein.com

distributed by nonine recordings

nominee for the german record critics‘ award 2010
(preis der deutschen schallplattenkritik)

would you imagine that the first apes coming down from their trees… wandering the savanna in search of new fields could have conceived that their descendents would write about cross-over on their  lap tops? nevertheless, evolution serves the common good, the proof being that we are no longer swinging in trees. david minor’s album ’sparse‘ is created with a delicate, yet brave gust of fervor brought about by years of impending musical ideas and sentiments stirring in the poetic rice paper boats of his stomach. with the kind permission of composer geoffrey pope allowing david to caper about in his diverse collection of orchestral samples, singer/musician/producer david minor and producer me raabenstein take us on an epic journey through vintage times and beloved spaces. the album sparse takes us through dark, gas lit vaudevillian theatres and darling cellars stained by the sounds of cotton club swing. at times, you will be engulfed by smoky demented puppets lost, inebriated and meandering through the eerie alleys of film noir. 

’sparse‘ is the first part of david’s grand vision for the modern day musical – layered with treasured styles and bringing about new hybrid ideas. the musical architecture of david minor and producer me raabenstein swings through decades of discreet sexy sounds, reaching out to the conscious edges of its fathomed space, and somehow after visiting realms of once impervious musical territory, softly returns to itself. gershwin and bernstein took an approach to music, sewing the sounds of classical music and jazz together to create one of a kind crossbreeds.  many of the elements, which at this time were beginning to unveil themselves, seemed to dissipate in the bulk of music and its later advancements.  while later such styles such as progressive rock came upon the scene, it ceased to savor the taste that minds like gershwin and bernstein seemed to so devour on their musical palates.  however, ignorance killed the cat when it lacked curiosity.

in the album ’sparse‘, fragility sips carefully from the epoch, fusing classical elements merged with electronic structures, while underlined by jazz snippets of film noirish instinct.  out of this comes a disarming and daringly bourgeois technique: fragments, using so called technical mistakes to construct rhythmical structures, creating a personal amalgam.  while david fears the worst; his critics detecting absolute narcissism and indulgence, he ventures to give the audience an imprint of magic lanterns and tapping dancing cadences.  the album plays with the idea of  so called music, while medaling with your brain so much while listening that no movie is needed.  it is layered with a mosaic of fluttering colors and projects image after image into the listener’s mind.

enjoy the melody !!!

feedback

when you experience the work of some artists you understand it, others you enjoy it, but in david minor’s album ’sparse‘ he is able to do both. while doing these things he additionally taps into the rarified realm of expression that invokes a certain response from the listener, that of auricular resonation. through his application of various genres such as jazz, experimental, electronic, and minimalistic elements, he is able to sway the listener into a relaxed state of absorption. each musical element utilized in his compositions is done so with purpose, but no element of sound outshines another. in each of his tracks, he calculates each musical component so that it seamlessly merges with another while still working towards evoking a pleasant emotion. whether the element is a rendition of ‚für elise‘ or brass horns from the ragtime era it is blended into body of music with effortless grace. each piece is able to stand on its own, but in order to appreciate what david minor is expressing through sound, but i would definitely recommend listening to ’sparse‘ as one piece of music and not several tracks. it’s a great find !!!
noble freeman, wrgw radio, usa 01/10

here is a bit of music for your poet!  david minor’s music capers in a territory all it’s own; it’s something of vaudeville-electro-classical. he has successfully created a hybrid of sounds dwelling somewhere amid cibelle and her delicate constructions, charles mingus’ underground melodies, gershwin’s dramaturgy, while with a dash of david sylvian/apparat thrown in.. his vocal styles range between folkish narratives and a buckley/holiday love child. the album ’sparse‘ takes us through dark, gas lit vaudevillian theatres, darling garret’s sullied by the sounds of cotton club swing; at times you will feel engulfed by smoky demented puppets lost, inebriated and meandering the eerie alleys of film noir.

david minor was trained as a classical dancer, musician, actor, linguist and vocalist, he then travelled the world engaging in his many quixotic occupations. in his music one hears how his theatrical background is distilled into his music. in his album ’sparse‘ fragility sips carefully from the epoc, fusing classical elements merged with electronic structures, while underlined by jazz snippet’s of flimnoirish instinct. out of this comes a disarming and daringly bourgeoisie technique: fragments, using so called technical mistakes to construct rhythmical structures, creating a personal amalgam. his sound is varied and at times evokes similar emotions as broadcast and the focus group.
tastes like caramel, usa 12/09

whether it’s snapshots from nature, like the upcoming dawn, the desolate treetops, the savanna that always impresses with its sadly calm, simmering landscape, or the calmly icy coldness of human emotions when someone’s impressions are on the edge of marginality and isolation from the bustling rush of urban elitism. far from being a bizarre, isolating album trying to fit into the category of incoherent, sampled experimental works; it is full of warmth and artistic connotations that, at times, are very closely related to the achievements of david sylvian in recent years, as evidenced by the last track „ajaja,“ which seems like it came from the album „manafon.“ even minor’s vocal, with gentle sylvian-like mannerisms and voice tremors, is carried on structurally developed melodic foundations and has a very pleasant elegiac and harmonically „silent“ tone.

the rest of the album is made up of a system of sung and instrumental compositions where numerous schematic ideas alternate without any intrusion into dance tempos. from the opening „bells ot,“ which is somewhat of a continuation of brian eno’s experiments from his famous ambient collections of the ’70s and ’80s, through the ambient „breakfast or mona“ (with noticeable tuxedomoon experimental elements), the glitch and psychedelic-lit instrumental tracks „dingle“ and „7.0,“ to the film-noir vocal compositions „milky one wide noise“ and „olibo,“ the entire album is carried by a very subtle, even discretely eroticized atmosphere of a new musical worldview in which there are no hints of banality or unfinished superficiality. the only complaint that can be made about the album is the technical construction of rhythms, sometimes absent, sometimes present, they fall out of sync and then return, but overall, minor likely intentionally avoided the classical rhythm with which he’s anyway associated as a professional dancer, just to achieve a more exotic and strange, i.e., abstract expression.

very beautiful, seemingly conservative and restrained, at times disorganized, but very deep, ambient, and progressive work. album rating [1-10]: 7
predrag briek, terapija, croatia 02/10

great unsettling but grooving avante-garde beats, that don’t really sound like anything else.
james barrie, gloabal souljah radio show, spain

a great piece of challenging music, both uplifting and adventurous…
pedro figueiredo, o domenio des deuses, portugal 12/09

this stuff has an edgy brian eno vibe to it,  an extraordinary experience…
jason goodrich, chicago tribune, usa 12/09

nur für geübte hörer!!!
scheibosan, vienna

kind of like jeff buckley dancing with billie holiday in a magritte painting …
say hello max, usa 12/09

’sparse‘ is such a great impression! it seems like I am walking on wool with my eyes shut… or as I move into another environment maybe under the sea or on pandora. words will not be enough to express my sensation. congratulations for the stunning work!
pablo regalado, brazil 01/10