Release data:

Dan Barrio – The Physical World
CD-R, Private Release, 2002

To say that this work of 45 minutes is just an ambient-floater with some darker edges would be far too easy. Dan Barrio is a 26 year-old musician and audio-editor for film and tv, and has contributed some of his sound genius to the film The Blair Witch Project.

After five years of sculpting his own sounds and music, “This Physical World” is his first official release, one that is able to raise your eyebrows for sure. On this album, Dan has achieved to paint some introspective dwellings by means of soft textures with a more or less minimal approach.

The eleven tracks presented here are reflective in nature and sounding very mature as it makes you wonder about Life in past, present and the future world. The dense sonic tapestries shift between dark and light, soft loops and drones are spread out with slight use of melody once in a while.
“Melodic interludes” 1 and 2 shed a little light on the rather heavy content encountered here, with some nice environmentals closing in on you on the eight track “Under”. This track, more than all the others, gave me the same feeling as Thomas Ronkin’s great track “A Lovely Drowning” or Tim Story’s album “Drop”.

In general, this nicely crafted concept album falls in the same range like early James Johnson, Laocoon, but with more mesmerizing undercurrents. To me, “This Physical World” actually is film music for the mind, painting the beauty of decay and the cycle of life in a slowly evolving manner.

The record is one for close listening in the evening or at night, which will grow with every next spin in the cd player. I can only hope Dan won’t stick to only one record…

Website: www.danbarrio.com