‘Psycho-Acoustic Principles For The Dancefloor’ is a record emancipated from the overload of information that led me spiralling into a schizophrenic over-thinking lately in my music. ‘Outsider’ has a pureness of confidence which celebrates the last 10 years of isolation away from the European scene, while contained just under its surface is a sense of melancholy which points to the paradox within myself. I believe effective dance music plays with these human paradoxes, and in a time when the mask of confidence is amplified and commodified, music should tease out the human truth. I hope this record captures something essential which goes beyond the structural. If possible, I hope that it breaks down barriers and preconceptions as it delivers roses and intimacy into a place which allows the spirit to sing.’ – Frivolous
About Frivolous ///
From the wilds of British Columbia to the beating heart of Berlin and back again, Daniel Gardner’s journey through music has been all his own. To call his style idiosyncratic would be a disservice, for his is a sound that feeds off the world outside his studio as much as it comes from within.
Through his formative years discovering music in a remote location detached from the ebb and flow of cultural movements, Frivolous took shape as a distinct proposition inspired by the European minimal explosion but defined by bold strokes of playful ingenuity, both in his sound sources and the way in which he deployed them. This first came to light on Andy Vaz’s celebrated Background imprint; a label as concerned with funk and imagination as it was with glitchy production ethics. Likewise appearances on Karloff and Proptronix gave the perfect platform for Frivolous to indulge in his love of irreverent sampling and heart-wrenching melodies, as dizzying arrangements of found sounds and dusty rips filtered fed into a tonic that was equal parts humour and emotion, and not to mention eminently danceable.
As his confidence grew and steady European bookings gave him the chance to focus ever more on his craft, Frivolous’ own voice started to creep into the tracks, while his home made instruments became a key talking point in a scene that was becoming riddled with characterless laptop botherers. Out of this phase of his career came the Midnight Black Indulgence LP on ~scape, an album steeped in warm tones and oddball pop while still rooted to the fundamentals of house. The stylistic progression from here to 2011’s Meteorology was a smooth one, even as the graduation to Luciano’s techno empire Cadenza marked a serious ramp up in exposure and time on the road for the boy from BC. In a swell of widespread acclaim Frivolous took his live show far and wide for a good two years, living something of a vagabond existence while based around various parts of Europe.
After that rollercoaster, a decade spent in his native BC provided the necessary decompression before returning once more to Europe in 2022. Now having completed an MA in Music, Daniel Gardner aka Frivolous is once again calling Berlin home as a stream of fresh material reflects a new perspective both musical and experiential. While there may be no clues as to what comes next, the notion is reinforced that he will always do things his own way, and the results will always sound unmistakably like Frivolous.
– Richard Marshal
Stream ‘‘Psycho-Acoustic Principles For The Dancefloor’ HERE
