BYRON
Progressive/alternative rock band hailing from Bucharest, Romania. We started in 2006 and released our debut, “Forbidden Drama”, in October 2007. Structured as a theater play, the album showcases an eclectic mix of art-rock and alternative music, with progressive and classical hints. We later re-arranged the songs for a full unplugged performance, released the following year on the live DVD “Acoustic Drama”.
Our second studio release, “A Kind of Alchemy”, is out since October 2009. The album marks an evolution in our sound – we borrowed elements from various other genres (such as blues and funk) while also employing a wider diversity of instruments. The songs are entirely in English, as usual, and the album as a whole deals with the process of creation, ranging from madness to zen. In frontman Dan Byron’s words, “The mood is nocturnal, rather intimate, sometimes playful or even exuberant”.
In November 2010 we held a couple of special performances (unplugged & electric) in the Turda salt mine in Transylvania, more than 300 feet underground. The resulting material, “Live Underground”, was partly shown on HBO Romania. It will be fully released on DVD & Blu-Ray in spring 2012, together with a documentary, a series of interviews and making-of features. February 2011 saw the release of a special project: “Perfect”, our first album with Romanian lyrics, featuring well known songs by established Romanian artists which were re-arranged and re-interpreted in our own style.
The music itself is very eclectic, ranging from alternative rock to jazz, swing and even trip-hop, and the guest list is huge (Nicu Alifantis, Alexandru Andrieş, Virgil Ianţu, film director Nae Caranfil and many others). We are overall tributary the most diverse influences, ranging from “Thrak”-era King Crimson to Peter Gabriel, David Bowie, Tori Amos or Porcupine Tree.
