The history of Dr.NO starts the summer of l999. The band
CAT from Salou have issued their first album CATACLISME and are preparing new songs for a
second album. Then, the band splits. Enric Pascual (vocals and drums) starts to seek for
new members for a new progressive rock band. Enric Pascual had been part of other
progressive bands, like TAXI or HARNAKIS.
Enric
Pascual contacts Conrad Dubé, barcelonian moved due to work to the Tarragona region, who
accepts the challenge of starting-up the neo-progressive project of Dr.NO.
The
band starts with three members, because for some months has Rubén
Vilarroya, who was the
keyboardist of CAT. In these dates is born the embryon of EL BUFÓ DE LA CORT.
Later
on Dani Anguera enters the band at the guitars. With this components, that temporarily
have the colaboration of Peter Vall at the keyboards, the band configures a style that
takes as a reference bands like Genesis or Marillion.
Dr.NO
bids for songs very elaborated, experimenting with sounds and serching for new melodies
and musical structures, where it doesnt matter the duration of the song, but that
every single song is a small piece-of-art. From 2000 to now, Dr.NO
dedicates to compose
and give shape to the band. The result is the recording of a demo recording with a brief
sample of the bands music, where EL BUFÓ DE LA CORT shows up, a song that clearly
depicts their musical style. This demo, in which Dani Anguera acts also as a sound
technician, includes other songs like the
balad "No se el teu nom", "El fet diferencial" (a non-progressive song
that breaks with the bands style), "Lil.liput Part 1" and "Estación
Pirenaica".
At
the end of 2001, Enric Pascual and Conrad Dubé decide to produce the first professional
recording and enter the Entrepins studios in Tarragona where, with Jaume Moncusí, sound
engineer and keyboardist (he was a member of the historical jazz-fusion band
Metamorfosis), and with the colaboration of Pere Mestres at the guitar (former CAT
returned), record their first album EL BUFÓ DE LA CORT.
Oriol
Garcia, barcelonian guitarrist, colaborates during some months with Dr.NO (shows-up his
participation at the venue in Tarragona on 28/9/2002). On the keyboards,
Raül Cid, from
Tarragona, forms part of the band between march 2002 and the summer of 2003.
Abel Benito is the stage
drummer until the summer of 2004, when he decides to move to England.
The
actual band line-up in live, apart from Enric Pascual at the vocals and
Conrad Dubé at
the bass, includes Néstor Giménez at the keyboards,
Jordi Salvadó on the drums, and the bulgarian
Vilislav Pankov at the guitar.
The
Dr.No have been semifinalists of the contest Sona9 (Enderrock, Catalunya Ràdio and
Televisió de Catalunya), have been selected at the contest D.O.Tarragona organized by the
Municipality of Tarragona, and semifinalists of Tarragona for the contest GamaRock (TVE,
Ona Ràdio and Gama 2 Management).
EL BUFÓ DE LA
CORT has received in its self-produced distribution very good reviews in the symphonic and
progressive ambience, showing-up the review published in the e-zine progVisions (www.progvisions.net) and has reached thru internet
places like Monterrey (Mexico) where it has been included in the lists of the radio
program EUFONIA (www.eufonia.net). In november 2002
the dutch recording company Xymphonia Records (www.xymphonia.com)
got interested in the work of Dr.NO, and finally the 15 of february 2003 an agreement was
signed between Dr.NO and Xymphonia to publish EL BUFÓ DE LA CORT for Europe and the rest
of the world. The official presentation took place at the Tiana Progressive Festival of
this year, on May 10, and it has obtained very good reviews from prestigious media like the
british "The
Hairless Heart Herald" or the dutch
Symfocity.
Dr.NO is preparing new songs for
a second record that will be issued in 2006.