CD – Huddersfield Contemporary

Ernest Berk was a multifaceted artist who fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s and settled in London, where he spent most of his career working across disciplines such as composition, dance, choreography, acting and mime. Between 1957 and 1984, Berk created over 228 electronic works, many of which were intended to accompany his expressionist choreography. The music Berk composed during this period is particularly striking for its accessibility and affinity of melody, rhythm and texture – similar to many trends in later electronic music. Tracks such as ‘Wings Over the Valley of Death’ (1961) and ‘Kali Yuga’ (1962) explore drone soundscapes, while ‘Vibram’ (1973) also recalls modular synthesis improvisation. Pieces like ‘Against 7/4’ (1967) and ‘Janet Calls it Blue Ribbon’ (1972) offer sophisticated sonic gestures, that resemble acousmatic music and the concretist experiments of Schaeffer and Henry. Diversed Tapes, however, covers only a part of Berk’s enormous body of work, and it is surprising that such a charismatic and prolific artist has been almost forgotten for so long. Thanks to the efforts of Huddersfield Contemporary Records and the remastering work of Richard Scott and Jos Smolders, both sound artists in their own right, this release is worth listening to today and not just as an important testimony to the variety of those seminal experiments. Berk collaborated with several experimental artists such as pianist John Tilbury, composer Basil Kirchin, visual artist John Latham and filmmaker David Gladwell. His electronic music was perfectly aligned with the modernist aesthetic of these important figures of the British avant-garde, even if until the 1970s the British public showed very little interest in a multidisciplinary approach to the arts. The use of electronic music for dance remained marginal at the time and in this context, Berk represented a revolutionary figure – the compositions for his choreographies not only challenged conventions but expanded the boundary between sound and movement. Diversed Tapes manages to restore some of the vitality and restlessness that animated his work, offering an eclectic sonic journey, where each track seems to reveal a different aspect of a complex musical sensibility, keeping alive the essence of his pioneering ideas while providing an intense and contemporary listening experience.

 

Ernest Berk – Diversed Tapes