Dadala began in 2004 as a remix project, originally a way to recycle earlier material from RDunlap's archives (solo projects and collaborations recorded 1985-1996). The project was and is a continuation of RDunlap's long history of exploring alternative methods of creating music and audio-art, going back to the days when he bounced recordings from one cassette tape deck to another, performing live overdubs on the fly. As acquaintances were made online the project began to include material from other artists and until about 2007 used only already existing recordings in the process. With the album 'candy fish barrel' in 2007 dadala began to settle into a core set of contributors and began incorporating some material that was specifically recorded for dadala's use.

 

As of 2009 dadala had

evolved into a long-distance

ensemble of four core

members blending

improvisation with digital

alchemy, collage and

serendipity. The members

live in three different states

in different corners of the US

and with a few occasional

exceptions involving brothers

Richard and Frank Dunlap,

they don't ever actually

record together in real time.

But unlike its earlier 

incarnation the project now

features original material

recorded specifically for

dadala, and the band

members' interactions with

that material (performing

overdubs, remixing, etc).

The rest of the raw material comes exclusively from Loopy C's vast blog, including a private stash he has processed from earlier dadala tracks and recordings from the members.

 

UPDATE - 2014 found dadala working with three new international contributors: long-time online acquaintance Roger Sundström of Sweden (aka Erocnet - guitars, drum kit, soundscapes and more) and new friends André in France (aka Darius  - basses and more) and Frank Wilke in Germany (aka brass-lines - trombone, trumpet and more).

 

The way dadala tracks come together varies widely in process. Improvisation occurs not just in the instrumental performances but also in the mixing and production process. Unlike conventional and intentional composition dadala is an exploration of coincidence and synchronicity, including arbitrary elements and chance along with careful craft and manipulation. All the members of dadala get to enjoy novelty and surprise in the process, unlike the more static and predictable results of more conventional techniques.

 

The members contribute a wide variety of recordings ranging from unprocessed acoustic instrumental solo improvisations to elaborate experimental digital alchemy created with sophisticated cutting-edge software, equipment and techniques. Founding member RDunlap uses these recordings (along with his own occasional contributions programming and performing on a vintage Casio CZ-101 digital synthesizer) as raw material to arrange, combine, remix, edit, layer and otherwise manipulate to produce dadala.

 

Sometimes members perform overdubs to existing recordings (of their own, from other members, or premixes from RDunlap), other times completely unrelated recordings are combined. Sometimes material is used pretty much "as is" and combinations are left to play out as they will. Other times there is extensive editing and manipulation. It can be like building sculpture as an assemblage of disparate parts or like chiseling a statue out of a block of marble, sometimes both.

 

The listener is often not going to be able to tell what was intentional and what was happenstance, what was "live" and what was manipulated, or in what sequence parts were recorded. In dadala what sounds intentional was probably serendipity, and what sounds random was probably played that way on purpose.

 

More about Dadala here.