Dear Daniel by The Ballet
I first met Daniel Barrow on an internet listserv in the late 1990s. We were penpals for a decade before we met in person; he was living in Winnipeg at the time, I was in New York. We mostly emailed and IMed, but once in a while he'd send an illustrated letter or thoughtfully curated package in the mail. Daniel is an exceptional story teller -- in everyday life as much as in his work -- and his correspondences were filled with lurid tales of romance and lust, deception and revenge, with bizarre characters and surprising plot twists, stories almost too outrageous to believe. I regret that I had little to offer in return, save for the occasional musical gem on a mix CD.
I started writing scores for Daniel's videos and performances before we'd met in person, maybe even before we'd spoken. He'd usually give me some kind of direction, something like, "the music a delusional and foppish country bumpkin would think was elegant and refined." Sometimes he'd send other songs for reference: commercial jingles, creepy children's music, soundtracks from obscure made-for-television movies or campy slasher films. I'd never really paid attention to "background music" before, and didn't know what I was doing, but I figured it out -- more or less -- as I went along.
The scores are tracked in chronological order:
Catalogue of the Original (2004)
Artist Statement (2006)
Learning to Love the Normal Amount (2008)
House on Fire and Learning to Breathe Underwater (2010)
Advanced Search Terms (2012)
The Thief of Mirrors (2014)
Bouquet of Mirrors (2019)
Also included: 1) "Dear Daniel," a song I never finished, 2) a demo version of "Kitty" (featuring Daniel), originally released on the Annika Records compilation "Your Wanderful Parade," and 3) a remix of "The Face of Everything" -- inspired by Daniel's performance of the same name -- originally released on a 7" record with his book "No One Helped Me."
Tracklist
Credits
All songs by Greg Goldberg. This album has not been mastered.
