Daniel Dorobanțu
Biography
musician & visual artist
(b. 1975, Timișoara, România)
Ever since his debut in 1995, Daniel Dorobanțu has been producing 12 studio albums, multiple video art works, installations, live shows and multimedia experiments.
His art gives evidence of a consistent vision on the exploration and search within the undefined. He is motivated by a long-lasting interest and a continuous dissection of the nature of inspiration itself and the contemplative and meditative aspects of the artistic act.
The Romanian Cultural Institute and the Ars Electronica Center from Linz commissioned and promoted his works and The New York Times and The Guardian wrote about them. He is generally considered the pioneer of ambient music in Romania.
In 1995, Daniel Dorobanțu founded Thy Veils as a personal studio project. Thirteen years later, Daniel shifts his focus from composing to improvisation and transforms Thy Veils into a syncretic art ensemble.
As from 2008, no less than 8 artists joined him. Still, the project remained a unique integrative creation and Thy Veils’ concerts became audio-video, immersive event-performances.
Thy Veils is a resonant name for the ambient, neoclassic and world-fusion genres, both in the Romanian and international artistic scene. It is the only Romanian band invited at Sziget Music Festival for three consecutive years, between 2014 – 2016.
Thy Veils themes gravitate around introspection, contemplative and ecstatic states, as parts of a spiritual journey upheld by the drive to dissolve one’s personal limits.
The video art screenings signed by Daniel Dorobanțu not only complement the music, they are an equal part of the performance. Or, sometimes, they are a performance in themselves. A musical-visual wondrous atmosphere, smoothing the passage of the audience towards the inner worlds.
In 2010, the digital artwork produced by Daniel Dorobanțu and Michaela Konrad, Memories of Now, became a part of the collection of the Ars Electronica Museum in Linz, the most important electronic art exhibition centre in the world. Daniel Dorobanțu is the first and only Romanian artist with one of his works in this prestigious collection and Memories of Now had been on public display for four years.
Also in 2010, he produced the music for the contemporary dance show of the ballet dancer Yin Yue (Shanghai, New York), collaboration which was praised by The New York Times.
In 2012, he makes the public video installation Danube Connection: Story & Glory. It is a part of a wide transnational project produced by the Romanian Cultural Institute together with the Association Ivan Patzaichin – Mile 23 in Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest.
Among the artist’s recent projects are the cinematic concerts from the “Romanian myths series”. Archaic, primary elements of Romanian mythology and folklore are brought into modernity by means of the latest techniques of audio-video production and large scale presentation.
The most recent work from the series, The Silence of Unbounded Space (Liniștea Cuprinsurilor) is a contemporary mythological tale without words. On October 18th, 2015, Daniel Dorobanțu performed for 8 hours without interruption, in front of more than 500 people, attending the performance in the Roman-Catholic Church of Elisabetin from Timișoara.
On May 9th, 2016, Daniel Dorobanțu released the “The Silence of Unbounded Space“ album, which was recorded during the live concert. In the DSPro studio from Timișoara, Daniel together with the sound engineer Attila Lukinich carefully translated the live multidimensional sound experience into a studio work intended to carry the listener towards the same wondrous experiences.
Audio works
2016 – Daniel Dorobanțu – Liniștea Cuprinsurilor
2015 – Thy Veils – Live in Elisabetin
2014 – Daniel Dorobanțu – Prin Făr’ De Loc În Făr’ De Vreme
2013 – Thy Veils – Lumine
2011 – Daniel Dorobanțu – Cyclon Summers
2010 – Thy Veils – Mountain And Cloud
2008 – Daniel Dorobantu – The Piarist Church
2008 – Daniel Dorobanțu – Knock on the Sky and Listen to the Sound
2003 – Thy Veils – The Diaphanous Depressions
1999 – Thy Veils – Immemorable
1999 – Thy Veils – Against an Oblivion of the Forgotten Abyss
1998 – Thy Veils – Prologue
Video works
2013 – Danube Connection. Story & Glory – Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, Tulcea
2010 – Memories Of Now – digital artwork – Ars Electronica Centre, Linz, Austria
2010 – live video art for Damian Draghici (Grammy award winner), HotRomania Jazz Festival, Austria
2008 – Thy Veils – Dawn And Furtherance DVD
Installations
2014 – Thy Veils – The Winter Garden – Timișoara
2010 – Memories Of Now – audio-visual installation / performative system – Ars Electronica Center, Linz, Austria
2009 – Future Perfect – sound generative installation; sculpture by Denisa Curte, the Brush Factory, Cluj Napoca
2009 – Experiment Sintetic G – generative sound installation; painting and video-art by Laurian Popa, The Old Theater, Arad
2008 – Spacelove – multi-channel generative sound installation for the exhibition “Comic Impact Arts” by Michaela Konrad, Art Museum Timișoara
2007 – Anamorphosis – generative sound installation for Doru Tulcan in the Art Museum, Timișoara
Film music
2011 – music & sound design for La Soluzione Migliore (Better This Way), Lezard Films Ltd.
Nominated by „The Guardian” „among the best artists representative for the new European trends in music” and “for the best music worldwide in November 2010”.
Nominated for the music innovation award K-Explora 2003-2004, The Romanian Foundation for Design, Bucharest.
