Barnz (David Barnes) is a composer, multi-instrumentalist and recording musician with twenty years experience and 25 full-length album releases. He is probably best known as the Front man/ founding member of the Philadelphia rock band Puncture Project. But he is also the driving force behind several experimental groups including Bastard Finders, The Echo Chamber Ensemble and most recently - Post. Barnz has released many solo albums including the most recently featured album “Hinges.†(Free downloads available on his music website– barnzstuff.com/freedownloads )Barnes is a recipient of grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Pew Charitable Trust, Meet The Composer, The Individual Performing Artist Program, and 2 Fellowships from the MacDowell Artist Colony. His compositions for self-designed percussive sound sculptures and orchestral strings have been performed in several venues up and down the east coast including The Lincoln Center Out-Of-Doors festival (NYC), the Kennedy Center (Washington), Jacobs Pillow (Tanglewood), MTI (Phila), The Painted Bride (Phila), The American Composers Forum Sonic Circuits Festival, The Worcester New Music Festival, Mobius (Boston), The Dance Complex (Cambridge) and many other venues in Boston and Philadelphia. He has written and recorded scores for many modern dance and theater companies, and his first score for major motion picture will be coming out later this year.David is currently seeking other Ambient musicians to collaborate with in the Boston area.
Reviews:
"David Barnes - Hinges: When I first popped this one in the opening track, "Chainsaw in my Pocket" made me think "Ahh - I've got this one pigeonholed. Sort of Nine Inch Nails-ish Industrial pop." But as the song progressed it started to sound more like a parody of NIN than a me-too. Then came "Hub of Society" featuring intricate percussion, a funky bass line and two interweaving sustained guitars and I knew I was way off. This one brought back memories of Talking Heads "Remain in Light." What we have here is a varied mix of Industrial-Ambient-Prog-Experimental-Rock created and presented with marvelous depth and clarity, but most of all creativity. The title track explores the sonic possibilities and musical properties of squeaky door hinges with surprising results. The instrumentation elsewhere is equally intriguing. Barnes isn't the first person to use such items as hubcaps, kitchen utensils, bike horns, bike spokes, sinks, PVC pipes (it goes on and on), but he treats these objects as real instruments. No indiscriminate bashing and clanking here. Everything is played and recorded with great skill. The "real" instruments - guitars, basses, didgeridu (played by guest Daniel Orlansky) are equally well handled. And if you¹ve ever been curious about those weird gadgets
Q. R. Ghazala has invented, the "Incantor", a modified Texas Instruments Speak and Math with circuit bending is used on several tracks. Check out the Barnzstuff website for information on his other releases and projects. And get this tape!"
Greg Mathieson,
Gajoob
All pictures in the Pictures section are taken by David Barnes.
