Milieu by Daniel Berkman

In 2009 I was approached by Robert Dekkers, a new choreographer in the San Francisco Dance scene. Robert had just formed his debut company Post:Ballet and I was one of his first collaborators.

We created the work “Milieu” and premiered it at the Tempe Center for the Arts with Nova Ballet in Phoenix, Arizona. It has since been performed with Post: Ballet at the Cowell Theatre in San Francisco and with Diablo Ballet at the Del Valle Theatre in Walnut Creek.

Robert chose the title “Milieu” and I researched it to find my own relationship with the word. A word denoting a physical or social setting, an atmosphere, had to have some real significance or meaning for me.
I was to find the Divine Milieu of Thomas Merton and Teilhard de Chardin and it resonated with my philosophy and choice of instruments, the Gravikord (an electric stainless steel kora), marimbas, glockenspiels, asian drums, synths, voices, harmonic singing and environmental samples.

I felt as the instruments are descendants of ancient ones, transformed by computers and automation, so too seems to be the evolution of humanity. It is the question of whether or not we’ve lost our way, or that perhaps we are finding our way with the help of our ever evolving technology. Or are we?

In any case the music for me was a sonic riffing on the word “milieu” that led to some really cool results, especially with the use of the Gravikord. The computer is transforming the pitch, effects and other automation of the Gravikord in real time. Typically the Gravikord or (kora) is fixed to a diatonic scale. In “Milieu” I was able to stretch the possibilities of the instrument way beyond the instrument itself.
The harmonic structure introduced at the beginning with the succession of odd chords is reintroduced at the end with voice and full ensemble. During the end sequence, we hear the Gravikord chopped up and modulated beyond recognition. The timbre is there, only in digital fragments. At the climax we are again asked, “Have we lost our way?” as the refrain of Gravikord ostinato trails off into oblivion.

In addition to my multi-layered vocal arrangements, there is harmonic chanting and the sounds of bustling feet on cobblestone and church bells.
The harmonic chanting was recorded in 1993 in the crypt at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut with my friend Jim Cole of the harmonic singing group Coalescence. We had regular harmonic chanting gatherings which were very inspiring to me. My grandfather Sam and his brother Moses were graduates of Trinity College.

Robert Dekker’s title “Mine Is Yours” was inspired by the book Sex At Dawn by Christopher Ryan. We both were reading the book at the time and the ballet loosely reflects the sentiments of the book without giving away any real reference to it.

“Mine Is Yours” takes us through several different but related sound worlds, like walking through a dark sensuous fun house. Bowed piano, prepared piano, crumpled leaves, gamelan, celeste, electronic beats and alien voices lead the way.
The voice of Artemis Robison is very prominent in the work. First in the middle where she is by herself, treated with a bit crusher. It was a vocal looping composition she had written for our annual Song A Day songfest we do every February. We had written a piece called “Chanting on the Resonant Frequency of Venus”. I took our work and submerged it in a modulating effect creating a powerful but unsettling vibration underscoring a slow undulating rhythm and a soaring bowed piano wail.
The final segment is like a sea of androgynous aliens frolicking. Of course there is a climax.

“Colouring” was first written as a purely electronic score and premiered at the Cowell Theatre then Herbst Theatre in San Francisco in 2011.
The work combined music, choreography, photography and live painting.
It was later reworked and as I was delving into the world of cello at the time, I was compelled to integrated it in with the old score. I had inherited the Kay cello from my aunt. It belonged to my great uncle, Moses.
The result is the current version of “Colouring” with it’s multiple cello tracks and epic electronic arrangements.

Part of this 10 year collaboration with Robert Dekkers was the evening length ballet "Alice In Wonderland" which called for a much broader pallet and literal interpretation of subject matter and character development. But the more "modern" works presented here are glimpses into a deeper psychological world where the strange environment of dreams becomes the setting where our imagination takes center stage.

Daniel Berkman 2019

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.

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