Dear friends:

Sorry for the long blogging hiatus (we can't all be as prolific as Ms. Kurstin, can we?), and this might be as much a "bulletin" as a proper blog entry, but what the hell.... Anyway, we're delighted to announce our first ever video, which was directed by our friend John Jesurun. John is an amazing experimental theatre director we've worked with on and off for the past several years making music for his serial play "Chang in a Void Moon." The song is called "The Black Forest" and it's from Force of Light, our new Paul Celan inspired album on Tzadik. We hope you enjoy it.

You can see the video on our myspace or at these other places:

http://www.barbez.com/first.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5F8ZZ6t8V0

If you're curious about John's work, more can be found here:
http://johnjesurun.googlepages.com/

Happy summer and very best,

dan

Hello everyone:

Just a little note to say there's a new album on Tzadik that we're excited about....it's an homage to the Romanian-Jewish poet and Holocaust survivor Paul Celan, one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. The album was released this month on John Zorn's Tzadik label. It's made up of eight new pieces written by Dan and performed by Barbez. We recorded and mixed the album over about a year with our dear friend and long-time recording genius, Martin Bisi.

Force of Light features Barbez: Pamelia Kurstin on theremin, Peter Hess on clarinets, Dan Kaufman on guitar and lap steel, Danny Tunick on vibes and marimba, Dan Coates and Peter Lettre trading off on bass, and John Bollinger on drums. Joining the core group are some very special guests: Scottish poet and playwright Fiona Templeton reads Celan's words, Catherine McRae and Sarah Bernstein contribute on violin, and our old friend and collaborator from the past, Julia Kent, plays cello.

For New York friends we're having a record release party. The details are:

@Issue Project Room
Saturday, Nov. 3
232 3rd Street, 3rd Floor (corner of 3rd Ave and 3rd St. Subway: F train to Carroll or 4th Avenue)
Park Slope, Brooklyn
http://www.issueprojectroom.org for more info and directions
8 pm
For this performance we're thrilled to have Fiona reading Celan's poems live with the band. There will be Sarah Bernstein joining us on violin and Brad Kemp on cello.

We'll also be hitting the road in our yellow and black Kansas school bus....here's where we'll be heading....if you go to http://www.barbez.com/shows.html there are links and more details about the shows....

Barbez Fall Tour for Force of Light

11/1 Portland Maine @ The Space
11/2 Boston, Mass @ The Church w/Black Forest of Opium, Plumerai
11/3 Brooklyn, NY @ Issue Project Room
11/4 Philadelphia PA @ The Rotunda w/Oscura Quintet
11/5 Pittsburgh PA @ Duquesne University
11/6 Oberlin, OH @ Oberlin College
11/7 Louisville, KY @ Pink Door
11/8 Madison, WI @ Gates of Heaven synagogue
11/9 Chicago, IL @ Elastic Arts w/Matnia
11/10 Bloomington, IN @ Space 101
11/11 Washington, DC @ Velvet Lounge w/Janel and Anthony

"Force of Light is among the best of 2007; it is sophisticated yet accessible to anyone, heartbreaking in its articulation, and provocative in its assertions because its speaks gently enough for the moral authority of both spoken and musical text to be not only heard and assented to, but grasped for its context in history and in this present future moment."–allmusic.com (5 stars)

On the website you can also see some new pictures (Pamelia sleeping, shots of vodka lined up on a table in Moscow) and for those with a turntable we are now offering our new limited edition 7" on red or white vinyl on the site....

There is more about the album and Celan on our website http:www.barbez.com. You can also purchase it there (http://www.barbez.com/things.html) or at at http://www.tzadik.com as well as in stores and elsewhere online.


-dk

so... i have hijacked the barbez myspace today! yippieeee!
just popping by to say hi and tell y'all about what is gnooooooo*+*

so... the new pic is of our old bus... it died while we were on the last tour... in the middle of kansas somewhere... boohooo! but... just within a few hours... magically.. this guy nearby had a cute little yellow school bus for sale. we would have had to walk all the way back to new york if this leprechaun didn't magically appear!!! really!!!!!!

whut else??? oh... i dunno! i could tell you a joke or something...
oh.... no... i only know really really bad bad jokes... you'll have to catch us
at a gig and give me a beer if you really wanna hear my horrible jokes.

anyhooo... we have our next set of gigs in europe starting in my new hometown! if you are in vienna... it's gonna be a big party at rhiz.
if you aren't in vienna... you can visit the website and there is a webcam that you can move around the club... so you can still join us!!! www.rhiz.org

yak yak yak yak!

hope all is well and hope to see some familiar freakos out there along the way!!!

cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeers*+*

pamelia

Hello friends....we're heading out on a fall tour soon getting the van ready (a big job). We're starting out on the West Coast before heading back to Nueva York...Pam will be opening most of the dates with her beautiful one-woman Theremin Orchestra. If you're in the LA area, they'll be a few chances to catch us, either at the gig or at In-N-Out Burger...we hope to see you somewhere out there and thanks.
all best,
barbez