Ernest Berk - Electronic Music 1955-1984 (2026) [Hi-Res]
![Ernest Berk - Electronic Music 1955-1984 (2026) [Hi-Res]](https://img.israbox.com/img/2026-11/06/s9x7tzp2tli7cghks4rlvw261.jpg)
BAND/ARTIST: Ernest Berk
- Title: Electronic Music 1955-1984
- Year Of Release: 2026
- Label: Sub rosa
- Genre: Electronic, Experimental, Contemporary Classical
- Quality: FLAC 24/96000; 16/44100
- Total Time: 02:27:42
- Total Size: 664; 2108 MB
- WebSite: Album Preview
German-born dancer and choreographer Ernest Berk was one of the pioneers of British electronic music in the 1950s, yet remained almost unknown for decades. For nearly twenty years he made electronic music for dance in three North London studios, at Camden Road, Dorset Street and the Diorama in Peto Place. He had no direct counterpart in Britain; the closest parallel was the American Alwin Nikolais, who likewise combined composition and choreography.
His sound developed from early experiments with tape, microphone recordings and radio interference towards sounds produced by tone, pulse and white-noise generators. Throughout, Berk kept to a strict economy of means, using only a few carefully chosen sources. Rhythm, pulse and percussive tape loops remained the foundation of his music, reflecting his experience as a dancer and percussionist. In Gemini (Les Amies), Op. 52, recordings of a kettle lid grinding and spinning on various surfaces are set against percussion loops.
Berk often returned to finished works, reworking them, extracting sections and carrying recognisable motifs into new pieces, as in In Your Image, Op. 43 and No Fish (or Oh Mr. Bard), Op. 29. An eleven-minute version of the latter survives on one of the tapes that vanished from his archive after his death and were believed lost, until his friend and colleague Andreas Wirth revealed in 2024 that he held some of them.
Dance remained central to his work. He wrote fourteen pieces for dancer and choreographer Rebecca Wilson (their collaboration lasted until 1976), and in 1971 founded the Dance Theatre Commune with his third wife, Ailsa Berk. Nocturne (While I was asleep), Op. 163, with its repeating, breath-like loops, also existed in an hour-long version for the commune’s semi-dark, all-night “Liberation” dance sessions. A late work, Osterglocken, Op. 221 (1980), distils his interest in restricted materials into subtle variations of timbre, gesture and pulse. More than 280 of Berk’s compositions lay neglected for years; this anthology, released on Sub Rosa in its Early Electronic series, is part of the ongoing effort to rediscover them.
Tracklist:
01-01 Ernest Berk - Apparition, Op. 54 [3:57]
01-02 Ernest Berk - 1936, In Commemoration of the Spanish Civil War [5:50]
01-03 Ernest Berk - No Fish (Oh Mr Bard), Op. 29 [11:44]
01-04 Ernest Berk - Gemini (Les Amies), Op. 52 [8:50]
01-05 Ernest Berk - Plastic Wasteland, Op. 185 [5:18]
01-06 Ernest Berk - Emanti, Op. 170 [6:58]
01-07 Ernest Berk - Opus 201, Op. 201 [9:44]
01-08 Ernest Berk - Me Me Me, Op. 167 [10:39]
01-09 Ernest Berk - Ritual, Op. 204 [10:46]
01-10 Ernest Berk - Dream Sequence, Op. 111 [16:29]
01-11 Ernest Berk - In Your Image, Op. 43 (Extended Version) [4:47]
01-12 Ernest Berk - What's Up, Op. 203 [13:52]
01-13 Ernest Berk - Osterglocken, Op. 221 (Bourges Version) [15:38]
01-14 Ernest Berk - 126, Op. 126 [3:28]
01-15 Ernest Berk - Witches, no opus [6:02]
01-16 Ernest Berk - Nocturne (While I was asleep), Op. 163 [13:39]
His sound developed from early experiments with tape, microphone recordings and radio interference towards sounds produced by tone, pulse and white-noise generators. Throughout, Berk kept to a strict economy of means, using only a few carefully chosen sources. Rhythm, pulse and percussive tape loops remained the foundation of his music, reflecting his experience as a dancer and percussionist. In Gemini (Les Amies), Op. 52, recordings of a kettle lid grinding and spinning on various surfaces are set against percussion loops.
Berk often returned to finished works, reworking them, extracting sections and carrying recognisable motifs into new pieces, as in In Your Image, Op. 43 and No Fish (or Oh Mr. Bard), Op. 29. An eleven-minute version of the latter survives on one of the tapes that vanished from his archive after his death and were believed lost, until his friend and colleague Andreas Wirth revealed in 2024 that he held some of them.
Dance remained central to his work. He wrote fourteen pieces for dancer and choreographer Rebecca Wilson (their collaboration lasted until 1976), and in 1971 founded the Dance Theatre Commune with his third wife, Ailsa Berk. Nocturne (While I was asleep), Op. 163, with its repeating, breath-like loops, also existed in an hour-long version for the commune’s semi-dark, all-night “Liberation” dance sessions. A late work, Osterglocken, Op. 221 (1980), distils his interest in restricted materials into subtle variations of timbre, gesture and pulse. More than 280 of Berk’s compositions lay neglected for years; this anthology, released on Sub Rosa in its Early Electronic series, is part of the ongoing effort to rediscover them.
Tracklist:
01-01 Ernest Berk - Apparition, Op. 54 [3:57]
01-02 Ernest Berk - 1936, In Commemoration of the Spanish Civil War [5:50]
01-03 Ernest Berk - No Fish (Oh Mr Bard), Op. 29 [11:44]
01-04 Ernest Berk - Gemini (Les Amies), Op. 52 [8:50]
01-05 Ernest Berk - Plastic Wasteland, Op. 185 [5:18]
01-06 Ernest Berk - Emanti, Op. 170 [6:58]
01-07 Ernest Berk - Opus 201, Op. 201 [9:44]
01-08 Ernest Berk - Me Me Me, Op. 167 [10:39]
01-09 Ernest Berk - Ritual, Op. 204 [10:46]
01-10 Ernest Berk - Dream Sequence, Op. 111 [16:29]
01-11 Ernest Berk - In Your Image, Op. 43 (Extended Version) [4:47]
01-12 Ernest Berk - What's Up, Op. 203 [13:52]
01-13 Ernest Berk - Osterglocken, Op. 221 (Bourges Version) [15:38]
01-14 Ernest Berk - 126, Op. 126 [3:28]
01-15 Ernest Berk - Witches, no opus [6:02]
01-16 Ernest Berk - Nocturne (While I was asleep), Op. 163 [13:39]
| Classical | Electronic | FLAC / APE | HD & Vinyl
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