Frivolous
As a school teacher, it seemed easiest to link the unconventional behaviour of Daniel Gardner to a learning disability; proving to be the first in a series of failed attempts to categorize this undefinable young artist.
Grades were always mediocre at best for the young suburban Vancouverite, until one semester a mysterious new course emerged into a normally less than progressive curriculum; Electronic Music Composition. Suddenly discovered were honour roll grades, and a means to merge a captive young mind with over a decade of communist-style classical piano training.
In 1996, won over by unified dance floors and the Detroit sound, the 16 year old Frivolous engages in a long term love affair with the loop and takes his first weekly residency at a downtown Vancouver afterhours. After two successfully directionless years in electronics and then design, and after dabbling with some white label releases, Daniel decides to put his pride aside and send out a demo. A CD of incomplete works were sent out as an experiment to 5 of the most technologically innovative 12" labels in Germany and received back were 3 requests to release the material. "I told Andy [Vaz] that the work wasn't finished, and the day I received his reply was the day that the test pressings arrived for the Crankkongestion EP (Background Records), it's jsut been a chain reaction since then." Today, after a long evolution in his sound, Daniel's recording alter-ego Frivolous captures a romantekly influenced montage of the most cutting edge prdouction technics with an old soul mentality. Along side his extremely bizarre performances, is the incorporation of classic instruments, home-made inventiosn and vocals into an environment build on experiments with glitchy cut-up funk, musique actuelle and found sound.
