Feverdreams by Daniel Berkman
Still in the blissful afterglow of my debut kora release "Heartstrings", I waltzed merrily from gig to gig with my kora and electronic devices. I even tried busking to share this majestic instrument with as many people as I could.
One evening in Oakland when I was celebrating Dave Earl's birthday with friends, I was introduced to a character who would add an essential component to my music. His name was Frank Garvey. And it was the dark element in his music, paintings, film and robotic sculptures that inspired me to unleash the power of the dark in my own music.
Frank would often cite the concept of Eros and Thanatos; the dual relationship between Eros, the personification of love and life, and Thanatos representing death and destruction. This was Frank's way of both understanding the dualistic nature of reality and of great art, and also as way of distinguishing his and my modus operandi. In essence, "Heartstrings" was my Eros whereas Frank's "Seasons Of The Veil" was his Thanatos.
When performing shows at the Omnicircus in San Francisco with his band, Deus Machina, we would often improvise erie segues in between numbers, some of them being live kora improvisations, some with me playing my Roland GR300 and using the Oberheim Echoplex for looping. I created some of my most compelling soundscapes and it was a good thing that Frank pressed record.....as he always did!
By the end of 1998 I had hours of improvised compositions of new electronic kora music caught on digital audio tape. I thought a great idea for a new album would be to pick the best clips from these tapes and compile them onto one CD. This compilation turned out to be "Feverdreams", the antithesis to "Heartstrings", my Thanatos response to Eros.
With my sonic palette expanding, my solo live performances seemed more complete. A traditional Mandinka song may segue into washes of chorus drenched reverb, psychedelic drones of backwards kora riffs may taper off into one of my sentimental tonal compositions. I now had a show that took you on a real journey, from joy to sorrow, from alienation to intimacy. My voyage with the kora had taken me farther than I could ever have imagined....and it was only the beginning!
Daniel Berkman 2013
Tracklist
| 1. | Verge | 5:55 |
| 2. | Boobytraps | 1:51 |
| 3. | Cry | 5:22 |
| 4. | Floe | 4:46 |
| 5. | Feverdreams | 18:14 |
| 6. | Reverie | 7:05 |
Credits
Kora, Electronic Devices and Roland GR300
by Daniel Berkman
Produced and Engineered
by Frank Garvey
Digital Editing and Mastering
by David Earl
Graphic Design/Photography
by Nancy Ledansky
Cover Art Videography
by Geoffrey Pond
Voice Recording of Bern Porter
by Aaron Edsinger and Jeff Weber
All tracks composed and performed by Daniel Berkman.
Copyright © 1998
License
All rights reserved.
Daniel Berkman is a Bay Area electronic musician, composer, multi-instrumentalist, producer, looper and innovator of the Kora (a 21-stringed harp-lute from West Africa) and it's modern counterpart, the Gravikord.
Daniel composes for dance, film, instrumental, vocal and also has recordings under his electronic music moniker Colfax.