Dream Streets

The man with coolest name in the world and an emotional violin attached to his capable hands.

- GetJazzical

Known as the leader of Ne(x)tworks, a violinist in Ethel and a composer to be reckoned with, Cornelius Dufallo celebrates the release of Dream Streets, a beautiful, evocative disc of electroacoustic soundscapes newly issued on the Innova label. Some of the pieces on the disc cut poppy grooves, while others drift and disintegrate in a gauzy haze; all serve as apt reminders of this vital artist’s considerable gifts.

- Steve Smith, Time Out New York

Cornelius Dufallo’s Programm, Dream Streets, uses additive process, via loops, to bring each of his pieces to life. Reverb, delay, filters, and other effects are used heavily to create soundscapes, as in ‘Carillion’, the second movement of the suite. Other pieces create clear melodies or at least suggest known forms. ‘Lighthouse’, complete with rain sounds, oscillates between a blues-folk melody and a wall of sound. The suite’s ‘Passacaglia’ is heavy on digital manipulation; but, even though it has all the motion in the piece, the violin chords entering and existing above it are the important line. Dufallo’s approaches to the solo violin, bolstered by electronics, is one that cultivates innovation without the expense of becoming austere, esoteric clouds of digital editing. The electronics do not lend themselves to toe-tapping or the rhythmic trance created by additive process, but Dufallo’s interest intent seems to be to elicit emotions.

- Lamper, American Record Guide

...a wonderful violinist and composer as well as one of the biggest champions of new music around....

- Alexandra Gardner, Jigsawmusic

Virtuosic in every detail, these works for violin and electronics are full of expression and ideas at play in a broad emotional and intellectual range. The enduring benchmark for exploring solo instruments remains Fred Frith's 1974 Guitar Solos, an electronic extension being many of Robert Fripp's Soundscapes releases. Duffalo's work on violin seems to be in that spirit, but very different in approach and intent. In some ways more traditionally musical than the pure experimentation of Frith or the stratified eventides of Fripp, Duffalo spins out beautifully articulate phrases that build into and across their own controlled repetitions and variations while remaining highly sensitive to the primacy of sound. Electronics and some audio vérité play supporting and contrasting roles, dropping us off on a busy street or leaving us to contemplate a sudden absence in the midst of a gentle rain. These unpitched accompaniments usually enhance the timbral hardness or softness of the violin as it falls into and out of self-determined solos, duos and trios, rhythmic, pizzicato or legato passages in firmly constructed, harmonically complex, purposeful movement. Duffalo's playing - and sense of play - are fluid and entertainingly enlightening as he traverses abruptly caustic or reflectively pelagic expanses with unconstrained ease and purpose. Comprised of nine concise, mostly short pieces surrounding the six part "Suite for Electric Violin", Dream Streets is a highly accomplished first solo effort from the violinist of the ETHEL quartet and member of Ne(x)tworks that exhibits experimental, inventive and musical attributes in near perfect proportions.

- Kerry Leimer, Expose