A Cello's Lament, by Daniel Berkman

A Cello's Lament

by Daniel Berkman

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Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Four Dance Pieces, Broke(n), Feel For Steel, A Cello's Lament, Reverence, Live at Wisdome, The Healer, Ten-Year Forecast 2021, and 25 more. , and , .

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1.	The Journalist (for Moses) 03:36	buy track
2.	The Founder (for Samuel) 06:13	buy track
3.	Lessons We Learned In Our Teens 01:55	buy track
4.	It Was A Miracle (Viol Instrumental) 01:27	buy track
5.	Teardrops To The Sea 03:28	buy track
6.	Gamba de Gambia 03:40	buy track
7.	Patience (feat. Artemis) 02:53	buy track
8.	To An Old Friend 01:11	buy track
9.	Nothing More Than This 01:31	buy track
10.	The Painter (for Aaron) 06:31	buy track
11.	The Prodigy (for John) 03:54	buy track
12.	The Rain Has Stopped 02:58	buy track
13.	A Cello's Lament (feat. Artemis) 05:21	buy track
14.	Riches 03:30	buy track

about

A Cello's Lament was composed and recorded between 2013 and 2022 at my home studio in San Francisco.
Most of the compositions herein were composed and recorded in a single day as part of the Song A Day project, a community of composers who write a song a day for the month of February.
2022 marks my 11th year doing Song A Day and 259 songs!

I started playing and experimenting with recording cello in 2013 and soon thereafter started playing viola da gamba.
February was a good time to write and to bring these initial string sketches to fruition.
There have been many opportunities to collaborate with my peers as well.
Artemis Robison and I have been long time collaborators and touring buddies and whenever I wanted to explore the female voice, hers was just the sound to spark my imagination.
The Song A Day club dubbed February 22nd "Cover Day" and we would cover each other's songs.
I took the opportunity on numerous occasions to cover somebody's song on cello or gamba and these were so lovely I had to include them on this record.

When deciding on the album cover, I wanted to keep with the theme of collaboration and remembered that artist, therapist, dancer and entrepreneur Jordana del Feld had painted me with my cello several years back.
At that time Jordana was doing portraits on paper grocery bags.
It was fitting in a way that it mirrored my rough approach to recording these pieces (recording with an SM58 in a small room on a noisy street).
The portrait was the perfect compliment to my album, ironic in the sense that I'm holding the cello between my legs like a gamba, without the pin, playing without a bow, dressed in all black and smiling.

As an amateur cellist, I strove to keep the best takes and allow for nuance and imperfection, hopefully achieving something beautiful along the way.

My Wabi Sabi cello.

I inherited this cello from my Aunt Florence. It is a Kay cello, probably from the 40's, old and cheap but built like a tank!
It belonged to Florence's late husband Moses Berkman, the brother of my Grandfather Samuel Berkman.
A Cello's Lament is also a tribute to the brothers; Moses, Samuel, Aaron and my late father John Berkman, a tribute to their legacy.
The cello itself is a descendent.

There is much reference to the dead on this album.
Titles like "To An Old Friend" and "A Cello's Lament" hint at longing or loss of some kind and "The Rain Has Stopped", a song by David Earl was written for our late friend Don Grant.
The haunting refrain, "They called you back to the sea" just happened to recall "Teardrops To The Sea" in an eerie way.

Thank you to all who have lent their talents to this lovely project. It was a joy and an honor to collaborate with you!

credits

released December 2, 2022

Daniel Berkman - cello, viola da gamba, gravikord, kora, acoustic guitar, vocals, keyboards
Artemis - vocals on Patience and A Cello's Lament

All music composed by Daniel Berkman except:

Lessons We Learned In Our Teens by Chris Greacen
It Was A Miracle, lyrics and music by Derek Greenberg
Patience, vocal arrangements by Artemis Robison
To An Old Friend, lyrics and music by Peter Johnson
Nothing More Than This, lyrics and music by Jonathon Aronson
The Rain Has Stopped, lyrics and music by David Earl
A Cello's Lament, lyrics and vocal arrangements by Artemis Robison

Cover portrait by Jordana del Feld

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about

Daniel Berkman San Francisco, California

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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