#colfaxsound

[danielberkman]

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Happy Place #rolandjp08 #rolandboutique #thejupiterexpeditions #colfaxsound #danielberkman #happyplace (at San Francisco, California)

[danielberkman]

Daniel Berkman performing live at the Tech Museum of Innovation for LoveTech May 10, 2014. The complete performance is improvised using Gravikord, Handsonic, Laptop, iPad and the Boss RC-505 looper. This recording is mono.

[danielberkman]

This is my backing track for my latest dance score written for Robert Dekkers of Post:Ballet for Season 4 (Four Plays). The piece is called "Colouring" and was originally composed in 2011 as a purely electronic score and performed live in a DJ-style context. The piece utilizes choreography, photography, live painting, photo projection and music. Robert Dekkers chose 'Colouring' for Season 4 but wanted to revise it, beef it up. We first thought live looping would be a neat approach and thought of other types of instrumentation. I was kind of at a loss. What instrument would compliment this piece? For the last 3 years during the month of February I've participated in a thing called Song-A-Day where anyone who wants to could write, record and post a song a day for the month of February. This year I wrote mostly instrumentals and wanted to stretch out on instruments I haven't worked with or haven't used in a while. One of those instruments was my old Kay cello. Here's the quick back story for context: In 1998 I inherited an old cello from my aunt Florence. She was the widow of my great uncle Moses Berkman who was a journalist and apparently a cello player. For several months in 98' I played the cello and learned quite a bit. I was quite into the Bach Suites and listened a lot to Casals and Rostrapovich. But the A string kept breaking and I was getting frustrated. I kinda just put the thing away and it sat in storage for about 14 years. Fast forward 14 years, inspired by the lovely photographer/cellist Ariel Berendt and the work of Zoe Keating, I was reminded that I have this amazing artifact just sitting in storage waiting to take out and color with! I fixed up my old cello and began composing! Bad technique n' all! I just wanted to play! It would take many takes to get a good performance, lots of editing and sometimes pitch correction, but the editing became less and less necessary. Song-A-Day yielded four tracks; For Mo, For Aaron, Things We Did In Our Teens and White Cloud. Robert Dekkers heard these pieces and was impressed. He asked me if I'd consider adding cello parts to the new 'Colouring'. I simply said yes. He asked if I'd perform live. I was hesitant because I never have performed live on cello. But since February I've purchased an electric cello for the purpose of being able to play cello live and the idea of playing electric cello for 'Colouring' was irresistible. I think it turned out to be a gorgeous score. 'Colouring' is also a testament to how Robert Dekkers brings out the best in his collaborators. -Daniel Berkman