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BARBEZ - INSIGNIFICANCE
imprec063 - CD - $11.99 
Insignificance is the result of two years of intensive work and the culmination
of seven years of exploration and growth by this unusual and powerful
Brooklyn-based band. After the critcal success of Barbez's self
titled full length debut on Important Records, they've returned
with a groundbreaking sophmore album and a new Theremin player who
Bob Moog has called the single "greatest living" Theremin
player on Earth. While Insignificance maintains Barbez's trademark
ethno-punk-cabaret, the compositions have become more tight, more
spacious, more frenetic and more explosive. Insignificance has more
of a compositional complexity and careful instrumentation than Barbez's
debut, promising to be a classic in this burgeoning sub genre known
as Punk-Cabaret.
Insignificance was recorded, mixed and co-produced by legendary
New York engineer/producer Martin Bisi (Swans, Sonic Youth, Dresden
Dolls, John Zorn) at BC studios near the Gowanus canal in Brooklyn.
2004 was a big year for the Punk-Cabaret with groups like The Dresden
Dolls, Barbez and Gogol Bordello garnering an increasing amount
of deserved mainstream attention. While bands like The Dresden Dolls
draw more from a well of theatrical punk, Barbez travels deep into
the heart of Europe. Drawing their unusual instrumentation into
a haunting, original sound, Barbez evokes everything from The Swans
and PJ Harvey, to Lotte Lenya and Eastern European folk music. While
Barbez is not afraid to wear their influences on their sleeves covering
Erik Satie and Alfred Schnittke on Insignificance, they maintain
their own brilliant sound moving effortlessly between frenetic and
explosive rock to hauntin Slavic tinged meloncholy.
BIO
Barbez began almost 7 years ago, with members whose backgrounds were
in dance, rock, jazz, electronc and avante-garde classical. When Barbez
isn't touring, scoring plays and films, individual members of the
group are in-demand instrumentalists. The artists involved in Barbez
are some of the finest and most unique music makers in New York and
they include: Pamelia Kurstin, a master theremin player whose credits
include David Byrne, Cibo Matto, Air and many others. Bob Moog, the
electronics pioneer and long-time theremin maker has called her "one
of the world's greatest living thereminists."
Ksenia Vidyaykina, a St. Petersburg, Russia native fireball, whose
training includes extensive work and performing in Russian theatre
and experimental dance.
Dan Kaufman, is the group's primary composer and guitar player and
he also plays with Rebecca Moore.
Danny Tunick an exceptional percussionist who's as familiar and comfortable
playing complicated twentieth century works by Pierre Boulez as he
is playing rock and who's credits include Bang on a Can and Guv'ner.
Dan Coates, a bass player, who's also developed electronics equipment
for Electro-Harmonix and Eventide and who built a specially modified
palm pilot upon which he can play a vast array of electronic sounds.
Shahzad Ismaily, an impossibly gifted multi-instrumentalist who's
played with Brian Eno, Marc Ribot, Secret Chiefs among countless others.
John Bollinger one of NYC's most versatile and sought after drummers
loaded with both power and finesse.
Frequent collaborations with other musicians, both live and in
the studio, have included Eszter Balint, Nils Frykdahl (Sleepytime
Gorilla Museum), Anthony Nozero (Drums And Tuba), and the Lonesome
Organist. Barbez recently wrote and performed music for Chang In
A Void Moon, by legendary avant-garde director and MacArthur genius
grant winner, John Jesurun. They will be touring constantly to support
this release. Barbez is also a constant, vibrant part of the New
York music scene, and has shared the stage with such performers
as Cat Power, godspeed you! black emperor, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum,
the Angels Of Light and Devendra Banhart.
* Barbez was profiled on NPR's nationally syndicated "The
Next Big Thing." The story aired twice, most recently this
past February
- Barbez are a mainstay in the ethno-punk-cabaret scene collaborating
and touring with bands like Gogol Bordello, The Dresden Dolls and
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum.
• The record features the virtuosic theremin player, Pamelia
Kurstin, who's done sessions and played with many great artists
including David Byrne, Air, John Zorn, Cibo Matto, among many others
• Record was recorded, mixed and co-produced by Martin Bisi
(Swans, Sonic Youth, Herbie Hancock, Dresden Dolls, John Zorn, etc.)
• This record features a guest appearance on a Brecht/Eisler
cover by Thrill Jockey recording artist the Lonesome Organist. Past
collaborations have included chanteuse Eszter Balint, Tony Nozero
(Drums and Tuba) and Nils Frykdahl (Sleepytime Gorilla Museum)
* Barbez has toured the U.S. widely for the past several years,
and last year toured Europe for the first time.
* The band has collaborated with playwright and MacArthur genius
grant winner John Jesurun in his avant-soap Chang in a Void Moon,
with performances in New York and at Berlin's prestigious festival
Spielzeiteuropa.
* The band has shared the stage with Cat Power, godspeed you black
emperor!,Gogol Bordello, Dresden Dolls, Angels of Light, Sleepytime
Gorilla Museum, Devotchka, and Faun Fables among many others.
* Both Pamelia Kurstin and Dan Kaufman are working on solo records
for John Zorn's Tzadik label
Reviews
Popmatters
Splendid
Washington
Post
"Barbez is one of my favorite bands. For me, their musicianship,
creativity, and intelligent presentation just makes me feel good
to listen to them, both live and on CD." Bob Moog
“Barbez includes a brilliant theremin player who smokes cigarettes
and a full –throated Russian singer who comes across like Joan
of Arc with a sense of humor. They cover everything from Bertolt
Brecht to Black Sabbath, but the real attractions is their melodically
haunting originals. With a folk-music sound located somewhere between
turn-of-century Eastern Europe and modern America, it’s arty
rock that moves between brooding and winking.”
-The New Yorker
"The old world meets art rock in this Brooklyn band, which
melds instruments from Marimba and vibes to Theremin and Palm Pilot
for it's post-cabaret stew." Time Out New York
"A tight post-punk outfit with vague ethnic insinuations to
their riffage and a suitable
frontwoman named Ksenia." The Village Voice
"A Brooklyn based collective that considers cafe decadence
from a European point
of view. Barbez takes the violin and accordion of tango and the
sultry vocals of
cabaret to skewed extremes; it's repertory includes the music of
Kurt Veill
and The Residents." The New Yorker
"Compelling as she can be, Vidyaykina rarely overshadows the
rest of the sextet. Despite
their Balkan-Folk leanings, these players aren't authenticity junkies.
They use rock-band
dynamics to give their music heft while fleshing it out with all
manner of instrumental antics."
Time Out New York
"Tango and Palm Pilots. Theremin and Kurt Weill. Marimba and
Russian Folk music. If anyone
know's the meaning of cultural detritus it's Barbez: New York's
chamber punk sextet." The Portland Mercury
"Have you ever wondered what it would be like if the composers
Erik Satie and
Kurt Weill were still alive, and decided to form a rock band?"
Indianapolis Nuvo
"Uses traditional eastern European and klezmer influences
as easily as it does more traditional rock band instrumentation."
The Onion
"Seeing Barbez live is a little like seeing the Elephant Man-
something disfigured but beautiful." The Brooklyn Rail
"The worlds greatest living theremin player." Bob
Moog in regards to Barbez's young theremin virtuoso
"A deviant strain of Europhile romanticism seems to have taken
root in the artistic
underbrush of the US where a few musicians yearn for a lost epoch
of Dada Cabaret, sleazy
Parisian touts, accordion dirges wafting from the Gypsy camp at
the edge of the city, drop dead
gorgeous Polish exiles with a weakness for opium and a taste for
danger. Brooklyn's Barbez ventures down this musical back alley."
Willamette Week
BARBEZ Anybody can piddle around with themes of romance and sex,
but
these New Yorkers are past all that--in fact there aren't any other
humans at all on their beautiful and desolate planet. Each melancholy
melody or obsessive ostinato seems to belong to its own dimension,
and
the group's third album, Insignificance (Important), sounds like
it
just happened to capture the whole lineup--which includes Pamelia
Kurstin on theremin, Dan Coates on modified Palm Pilot, and Danny
Tunick on vibes and marimba--at the one point in all of space and
time
where they intersected perfectly. Tunick tucks his whimsical,
hallucinatory lines into Ksenia Vidyaykina's velvety Slavic voice
and
Kurstin's lost-at-sea theremin, and pointy-toothed guitar nibbles
at
everyone's legs. Occasionally they'll all burst into an inappropriately
ecstatic pop melody, which feels really uncomfortable, like when
daddy
took you out for ice cream after you saw him hit mommy. It's a sound
track for getting lost in a cold mossy forest after dark, daring
yourself to open the flap of the bearded lady's tent, or quietly
bleeding to death in the bathtub. CHICAGO READER
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