"Living in the Dark Ages" single released on June 25th!

A song Daniel Crommie wrote in 1984 and recorded in 2009 has been released at CD Baby as a digital download which will soon be available at iTunes and many other online vendors. "Living in the Dark Ages" features Daniel singing and playing acoustic & electric dulcimers and hammond & mellotron samples. You can find this song as a special two track EP (one version features Glyn Havard on bass guitar) plus video combo at Band Camp for the special price of $3.

"Skybridge" released digitally at Band Camp!

In 1990 Daniel Crommie acquired a Fostex Model 80 quarter-inch eight track recorder, a Fostex 12-channel mixer and numerous affordable rack-mount effects - and built his first studio "The Living Room". The first album projects completed with this new set-up were "Shadowgraph" and "Skybridge". "Shadowgraph" was a primarily song-based album and "Skybridge" was an entirely instrumental album featuring synthesizers and flutes. Originally released on cassette in 1991 concurrently with "Shadowgraph", "Skybridge" is re-released digitally - you can listen & download from Band Camp.

Reviews:

DANIEL CROMMIE, Skybridge

Here is a lovely, mellow instrumental recording comprised mostly of synthesizer, percussion instruments and various flutes. Its smooth, melodic arrangements provide a relaxing backdrop to work or to meditate by. There are no rough edges on this tape, enabling it to be easy on the nerves, as well as the ears. Artist Daniel Crommie is the sole writer, performer, engineer and producer on this quality recording. This tape is sure to be enjoyed by New Age and fusion fans alike.

Heartsong Review Fall ’91 / Winter ‘92

Skybridge by Daniel Crommie

On this other New Weave cassette, Skybridge, are Crommie’s solo works. His highly creative compositions move through electro-primal and New Age sounds – some potent, others calming, but never boring. Driving synth sequences and drums accompanied by flute are transformed into earthly spirit choruses punctuated with haunting samples and primitive instruments. While playing many synths, samplers, drums/percussion, and some HOT flute licks, he manages to avoid a saturated, fatiguing air. Instead the pieces are sparse and minimal, with a particular emphasis on content. Skybridge lacks the spontaneity and the edge of his collaboration with Jamie Haggerty (see Heat Lightning), but it is still recommended listening material. (Crommie has many solo tapes available and appears on various New Weave samplers.)

Synthesis / 1991 - (JW)

Daniel Crommie's "Shadowgraph" released digitally.

In 1990 Daniel Crommie built his first studio - a Fostex Model 80 8-track, Fostex 12 channel mixer, numerous affordable outboard effects and of course numerous acoustic & electronic instrument filled the room lovingly dubbed "The Living Room". Two albums were culled from a year of recording and both were released simultaneously on cassettes. "Shadowgraph" was the primarily song-oriented album and "Skybridge" was entirely instrumental. "Shadowgraph" is now available for download from Band Camp and "Skybridge" will soon follow. Here's a review from KCMU in Seattle:

“Techno” and “ethno” are what I label the two main elements of Daniel Crommie’s latest album. The line-up of instruments range from modern synthesizers, percussion programs and electric dulcimers to traditional reed pipes, clay flutes, wood flutes and penny whistles. With this combination, Crommie becomes a one-man-neo-Devo band with a twist on getting back to our musical origins. As the album progresses, Crommie reaches the extremes of both elements by stretching his songs from ultra-synth to oriental new age.

In “Small World” there is quite a competition between the “techno” and “ethno”. Crommie plays the flute as Eddie Van Halen plays the guitar. Wind instruments transform “Moon Circle” into a space-age oriental love song. “Reconstruction” is a jump in the “ethno” direction and reveals the diversity of Crommie’s talent. The furthest removed from electronics, it is a soothing, well-crafted instrumental piece. To contrast his two styles, Crommie follows “Reconstruction” with its “techno” antithesis, “Touching Tongues”. “Hall of Fame” expands on this style but sounds like nothing more than a synthesized experiment.

Crommie consistently states rather than sings his songs, which adds to the impersonality of the “techno” side of his music. Generally, the album is dominated by pulsing synthesizers which overshadow the contrast of the wind instruments to such a broad range that the album is left hanging without a definitive style.

Jacqueline Koch / Wire (KCMU program) June/July 1991