Liner notes

Hello everyone,
Twenty years ago I finished my first album The Years Alone; I signed the contract with Green Linnet in May 1994 in New York and the album was released in 1995. This was a long time ago in a different world where something they used to call the "music business" still existed. I will always remember fondly those days near the end of the twentieth century, , where you could actually record homemade cassettes of your music, send them to Record Labels, and eventually get that call, telling you that somebody liked your music and was willing to release it. It happened to me back in 1993 (and then again for Segundo Ciclo in 2002). But those days are long gone.

Nowadays the full concept of "disc", "album release", or "discography" sounds archaic , particularly for independent, poorly known, gender blending recording artists like me. But this collection of personal compositions is something I want to leave in a physical format to properly close the stylistic output I began 20 years ago. This is surely  the last time I release a plastic and cardboard disc. After this one I'll keep composing and recording off course, but I'll look for another way to show people what I do. Discs belong to a bygone era for me. (I said this while being, still, a compulsive record buyer)

This album is called Swan Song. Here you will find a new chapter in the search I started with my first album in 1993. In terms of style, Swan Song can be considered as the third part of a trilogy (started with The Years Alone and Segundo Ciclo in between) solo "composer" albums where I can also show my skills as a multi-instrumentalist and arranger, and gather compositions written in different places and times, with varied styles and instrumentations. In Swan Song you’ll find simple and catchy instrumental compositions with strong, sensitive melodies, passionate and sophisticated harmonies and atmospheres, rather gentle rhythms and a variety of instruments and sounds.

Like the two aforementioned discs, I asked for help from some musicians that I like (people with whom I played and shared stages and recording studios over the years, and a couple of new partners).
These great musicians gave life to these songs and added musicality and talent to Swan Song. They managed to interpret the meaning of all this, that is, for me, simplicity and beauty prevail over technique.
If there is something complicated or “difficult” here is subliminal and hidden to the sensitive ear. Ideally the technical sophistication of the composer should never get in the way of beauty, melodies and emotion.
In Swan Song there are tracks with odd and irregular metric, unexplained modulations, dozens of time-signature changes, erroneous dissonances, tempo shifts, etc. But hopefully it all goes unnoticed (only visible to the musicians who read the sheet music and to those who try to transcribe this music).

So it is ok if this long record seem banal and simple to some listeners. But may the sensitivity it hides reach the hearts of some. It was made with all my soul and heart, that I swear.

Love
DD, Paris December 2014

Full track list, excerpts and credits  here
BUY SWAN SONG   

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Thanks for your interest and support.

Swan Song info and track list here