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Daniel Blumberg

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Daniel Blumberg
Blumberg performing at Primavera Sound 2011
Background information
Born1990 (age 33–34)[1]
OriginLondon, England
GenresExperimental, indie rock, slowcore
Occupation(s)Musician, songwriter
Years active2005–present
Labels
Websiteboiledegg.org

Daniel Blumberg is an English artist,[2] musician, songwriter[3] and composer[4] from London who works between drawing, improvisation, song form and film.

Music career

[edit]

From 2005 to 2009, Blumberg was a founding member and lead singer for the band Cajun Dance Party. From 2009-2013, Blumberg was frontman and guitarist for the indie rock band Yuck.[5]

'Unreal' by Hebronix,[6] produced by Neil Michael Hagerty, was released by ATP Recordings in 2013. This was followed by a split single with Neil Michael Hagerty, released under the name Heb-Hex [7] Since 2013, Blumberg has worked mostly around Cafe Oto utilising Oto Project Space[8] and working regularly with Seymour Wright, Billy Steiger, Tom Wheatley, Ute Kanngiesser, Ross Lambert and Elvin Brandhi.

His shows are sometimes completely improvised or incorporate improvisation within his songs. He most frequently plays Steinberger guitar, piano, harmonica and sings. Blumberg collaborates with many different musicians live changing from show to show.

He explained to Il Manifesto in a 2019 interview "Live music must be live. I can't say what will happen from one concert to another. Sound with different formations and combinations. Now I'm in a trio with Billy and Tom. The space and context are always different and for this reason the music we produce is never the same."[9]

On 17 December 2019 he performed with a motorbike in a duo with Tom Wheatley for ICA's Pere Portabella retrospective.[10]

Mute Records released Blumberg's debut solo album, Minus, in May 2018.[11] Minus was recorded by Scott Walker's producer Peter Walsh with a group of radical musicians whom Blumberg met at Cafe Oto including Billy Steiger (violin), Tom Wheatley (double bass), Ute Kanngiesser (cello) and Terry Day (vocals). Jim White played drums on the album.[12] Minus received extremely positive reviews: The Times gave it 5 out of 5 and hailed it as a 'modern classic',[13] while Billboard described it as "one of the more unique and exquisite records you're likely to hear this year."[14] Amongst other critical praise for the album, Rough Trade ranked it the sixth best album of 2018.[15]

On 11 April 2018, Cafe Oto's OtoRoku released a live album,[16] recorded on 28 February with Billy Steiger, Tom Wheatley and Ute Kanngiesser. It was mixed by Marta Salogni, amongst others.

On 5 June 2018, Blumberg, Steiger and Wheatley performed two tracks from Minus, "The Bomb" and "Minus", on Later... with Jools Holland.[17]

"Liv" was released by Mute Records in December 2018. It was originally recorded live at Sarm Studios, London in 2014 and features Kohhei Matsuda on monosynth, Billy Steiger on violin and Tom Wheatley on double bass.[18] Blumberg performed in various configurations across Europe in support of the album including Hamburg Elbphilharmonie alongside Arto Lindsay,[19] plus international festivals including Katowice Ars Cameralis, The Hague Crossing Border, Milan Triennale[20] and End of the Road Festival.

In March 2020, he performed a live stream concert at Café Oto as part of a fundraiser for the venue which incorporated extended sections of live drawing as well as live versions of his songs.[21] The concert was reviewed in a half-page piece written by Abi Bliss in The Wire the following month.[22]

On&On, his second album on Mute Records was released on 31 July 2020. It featured the same core group of players as "Minus", with the addition of Elvin Brandhi performing vocoded vocals on the track "Silence Breaker",[23] and Peter Walsh returned to production duties. Initial reviews were overwhelmingly positive with The Financial Times giving it 5* and describing it as 'a startlingly good album',[24] The Independent called it 'an extraordinary work' in a 4* review,[25] and Uncut hailed 'another superb LP' and gave it 8/10. Pitchfork scored it 7.6 and contended that 'Blumberg uses improvisation and repetition to break free from traditional modes of songwriting'.[23]

His third studio album GUT was released 26 May 2023, once again via Mute Records. The album was preceded by one single, "CHEERUP", released on 5 April of the same year.

Musical collaborations

[edit]

Blumberg performs with saxophonist Seymour Wright as GUO. Their first release, GUO1,[26] was self-released in 2016, with a text from David Toop. In 2017, GUO2 was released by Cafe Oto's label Oto Roku,[27] and included text from American filmmaker Brady Corbet.

GUO4 was released on Mute Records on 20 September 2019,[28] featuring text from Fran Edgerley of Turner Prize-winning collective Assemble[29] and a short film by Peter Strickland.

BAHK,[30] Blumberg's ongoing collaboration with Elvin Brandhi (of the duo Yeah You)[31] has encompassed sporadic concerts, residencies and collaborative music, drawing and film. The group released their first track on the Qu Junktions compilation 'Hope You're Well' in May 2020.[32] The pair also devised a video work and silverpoint drawings for Blumberg's series Silver Dinner which was broadcast via Homecooking in June 2020[33] in which Blumberg collaborated with Japanese musician Keiji Haino.[34] In December 2021 BAHK premiered a 15 minute film work via AQNB called 'Alternatives for a Future Society beyond Head Infected Bodies'.[35]

Film scores

[edit]

In 2018 Curzon Cinemas/British Film Institute (BFI) commissioned Blumberg to compose the music to launch their Agnès Varda film season 'Gleaning Truths'.[36] which was announced in July 2018 and went on to tour the UK.[4]

In 2019, GUO collaborated with British director Peter Strickland who created a short film entitled GUO4,[37] to coincide with the release of the record on Mute which premiered at 76th Venice International Film Festival in August 2019.[38] It debuted in the UK at the 63rd BFI London Film Festival in October 2019.[39]

In October 2019, GUO collaborated with American film director Brady Corbet on a short film and performance entitled "GYUTO" which premiered at London's Close-Up Film Centre.[40]

In July 2020 it was announced that Mona Fastvold's film The World To Come - starring Vanessa Kirby, Katherine Waterson, Casey Affleck and Christopher Abbott - would premiere in competition at the 77th Venice Film Festival, for which Blumberg composed the original score.[41] Avant-garde musicians including Peter Brötzmann, Josephine Foster and Steve Noble feature on the score, which is produced by Peter Walsh. Following the premiere, The Observer described Blumberg's work as 'superbly original'.[42] Indiewire voted it their Number 1 film score of 2021, writing that "in no film this year was a score more crucial to the flow and texture of a story... Blumberg's first movie score so beautifully crystallizes the ache of first love by listening for the stir of echoes that it leaves behind".[43] Mute release the score on limited edition vinyl and CD on 14 January 2022, featuring two extended solo improvisations by Peter Brötzmann as physical edition exclusives. In May 2022, Blumberg won an Ivor Novello Award for Best Original Film Score for The World To Come, his first Ivor Novello Award.[44]

Blumberg composed the score to Brady Corbet's 2024 film The Brutalist, which stars Adrien Brody as the Hungarian Jewish architect László Tóth who survives the Holocaust and constructs a new life in America. The Hollywood Reporter dubbed it a "mighty score",[45] which Vogue wrote "swerves elegantly from tinkling jazz horns and piano to bellowing, cinema-shaking blasts of brass and drums that evoke the tumult of Tóth's inner world".[46] The score plays a particularly prominent role in the film, being described by the Financial Times as "imposing" and by Sight and Sound "muscular and boisterous".[47][48] The film is dedicated to the memory of Scott Walker, who scored Corbet's previous films. The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "Blumberg's stirring work honors him [Walker] with subtle echoes, also evoking comparison at times with the jagged edges of Mica Levi or the solemn grandeur of Terence Blanchard."[45]

Visual art

[edit]

Blumberg is a visual artist working primarily in the medium of drawing. He creates figurative drawings with the ancient technique of Silverpoint, also using watercolour and graphite. In 2015 he was awarded a scholarship to study a diploma in traditional drawing techniques at London's Royal Drawing School.[49]

In 2019, he participated in the Hyper! Exhibition[50] at Deichtorhallen, Hamburg in which he showed a large-scale graphite drawing. Also on display were 10 of his miniature watercolours and 2 video works. Hans Urlich Obrist wrote in the Hyper! exhibition catalogue that "Daniel Blumberg moves very delicately between the two worlds - between music and art."[51]

He presented his first solo show "UN-ERASE-ABLE" in 2019 at Union Gallery in London displaying a selection of his Silverpoint miniatures which he calls 'micrograms'.[52]

In 2020 he continued his work with silverpoint in a short work made for JOMO, a series by the MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art.[53] in Rome and a series of drawings made for MK Gallery, Milton Keynes[54] He also exhibited in digital media at Homecooking[55] for whom he created a series called SILVER DINNER combining drawing with music, performance and video in collaboration with Keiji Haino and Elvin Brandhi.

He composed the music for Marianna Simnett's video piece "Dance, Stanley Dance" which premiered at Matts Gallery, London in May 2020.[56]

From 20 June 2020 to 10 January 2021, Blumberg will show a large graphite drawing at the Kunsthal in Rotterdam for the exhibition 'Black Album, White Cube' alongside artists including Albert Oehlen, Scott King and Mark Leckey.[57]

Early life

[edit]

From 2005 until 2008, Blumberg was frontman for Cajun Dance Party The band signed to XL Recordings whilst he was still at school and he left shortly after releasing their debut album.[58]

In 2008 Blumberg recorded an album in Nashville with Mark Nevers, William Tyler and Tony Crow (Lambchop) called Daniel In The Lions Den,[59] released by Yoshimoto Jap/Zoom in Japan in 2009[60]

From 2009-2012, Blumberg was frontman and guitarist for the indie rock band Yuck, with whom he released their debut album before leaving the band.[61] During this period he self-released solo cassettes of dictaphone recordings of his piano songs under the names Yu(c)k,[62] and Oupa.[63] and toured and recorded material with Low[64] Blumberg made chapbooks of his drawings including the David Berman titled 'Somatic Archaeology'[65]

Unreal by Hebronix,[66] produced by Neil Michael Hagerty, was released by ATP Recordings in 2013. This was followed by a split single with Neil Michael Hagerty, released under the name Heb-Hex.[7]

Blumberg was an occasional member of Neil Hagerty's The Howling Hex,[67] playing guitar and vocals at Primavera Festival, Counterflows Festival in Glasgow and Café Oto London.[68]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Cosores, Phillip (16 May 2013). "Catching Up With Hebronix (Former Yuck Frontman Daniel Blumberg)". Paste Music. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
  2. ^ "Daniel Blumberg - The Royal Drawing School". The Royal Drawing School.
  3. ^ "Daniel Blumberg | Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  4. ^ a b "Gleaning Truths - The Films of Agnès Varda : In cinemas nationwide from August 3rd". YouTube. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  5. ^ "Yuck: Yuck Album Review | Pitchfork". Pitchfork.com. Retrieved 27 October 2018.
  6. ^ "Hebronix: Unreal". Pitchfork. Retrieved 8 March 2019.
  7. ^ a b "Listen: "Bad Days" from Hebronix offshoot Heb-Hex". consequence.net. 12 November 2013. Retrieved 8 March 2019.
  8. ^ "Assemble". Assemblestudio.co.uk. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  9. ^ "il manifesto". Ilmanifesto.it. Archived from the original on 15 January 2020. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  10. ^ "Cafe OTO → ACCIÓ SANTOS: THE WORKS OF CARLES SANTOS WITH DEREK REDMOND, Tuesday 17 December 2019, 7.30pm". Cafeoto.co.uk. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  11. ^ "Daniel Blumberg (formerly of Yuck) has signed to Mute and announced a new record". The Line of Best Fit. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  12. ^ "The Quietus | News | Daniel Blumberg Details New Album, 'On&On'". The Quietus. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  13. ^ Hodgkinson, Will. "Pop review: Daniel Blumberg: Minus". Thetimes.co.uk. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  14. ^ "Daniel Blumberg Talks His Musical 'Reboot' With the Deeply Personal 'Minus' & Putting Yuck Behind Him". Billboard.com. 4 May 2018. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  15. ^ "Albums of the Year 2018 Top 10". Rough Trade. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  16. ^ "Daniel Blumberg, Billy Steiger, Tom Wheatley, Ute Kanngiesser - 28.2.18". Discogs. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  17. ^ "Daniel Blumberg performs The Bomb from his debut album on Later... with Jools". YouTube. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  18. ^ "Daniel Blumberg quietly released a vinyl-only album with Hebronix". The Line of Best Fit. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  19. ^ [1] [dead link‍]
  20. ^ "Daniel Blumberg in trio | Triennale Milano". Triennale.org. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  21. ^ "Cafe OTO live stream". YouTube. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  22. ^ Biddles, Yewande Adeniran, James Hadfield, Clive Bell, Emily Bick, Noel Meek, Spenser Tomson, Phil Freeman, Michael A. Gonzales, Jennifer Lucy Allan, Brian Morton, Michaelangelo Matos, Dave Mandl, Alexander Hawkins, Simon Reynolds, Tony Herrington, Angel Marcloid, Dan Wilson, Jacob Arnold, John Olson, Greg Tate, Andy Hamilton, Julian Cowley, Tim Rutherford-Johnson, Vicki Bennett, Alan Licht, Louise Gray, David Toop, Claire. "The Wire 427". The Wire. Retrieved 13 July 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  23. ^ a b "Daniel Blumberg: On&On". Pitchfork. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
  24. ^ Cheal, David (31 July 2020). "Daniel Blumberg's On&On is a startlingly good album". Financial Times. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
  25. ^ "Album reviews: The Psychedelic Furs and Daniel Blumberg". The Independent. 30 July 2020. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
  26. ^ "GUO1, by GUO". GUO. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  27. ^ "Guo – 23.5.16 ← Cafe OTO". Cafeoto.co.uk. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  28. ^ "Daniel Blumberg and Seymour Wright return as GUO to launch new project GUO4". The Line of Best Fit. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  29. ^ "Turner Prize 2015 artists: Assemble". Tate.org.uk. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  30. ^ "Daniel Blumberg s'associe à Elvin Brandhi en tant que BAHK". Sound Of Violence. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  31. ^ "KRAAK | Yeah You". Kraak.net. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  32. ^ "Various - Hope You're Well". Discogs.com. May 2020. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  33. ^ "Daniel Blumberg and Keiji Haino new video work, Silver Dinner • WithGuitars". Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  34. ^ Cooking, Home (4 May 2020). "Daniel Blumberg and Keiji Haino, SILVER DINNER". Vimeo.com. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  35. ^ ""We made a fresco." Elvin Brandhi & Daniel Blumberg introduce the surreal interdisciplinary world of BAHK with a raw & raucous manifesto | | atractivoquenobello". www.aqnb.com. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
  36. ^ Laurence, Alexander (26 September 2018). "Daniel Blumberg Releases New Track "Family"; Watch The Video Starring Stacy Martin". Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  37. ^ "GUO4 - directed by Peter Strickland (teaser)". YouTube. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  38. ^ "Biennale Cinema 2019 | GUO4". La Biennale di Venezia. 17 July 2019. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  39. ^ "GUO4 | London Short Film Festival". Shortfilms.org.uk. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  40. ^ "CLOSE-UP | GUO present GYUTO with Brady Corbet". Close-Up Film Centre. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  41. ^ The World to Come (2020) - IMDb, retrieved 31 July 2020
  42. ^ "Venice film festival 2020 roundup – against all the odds, a triumph". the Guardian. 12 September 2020. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  43. ^ Ehrlich, Steve Greene,David; Greene, Steve; Ehrlich, David (15 December 2021). "The Best Film and TV Scores of 2021". IndieWire. Retrieved 13 January 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  44. ^ "Winners of The Ivors 2022 announced". The Ivors Academy. 19 May 2022. Retrieved 23 May 2022.
  45. ^ a b Rooney, David (1 September 2024). "'The Brutalist' Review: Adrien Brody Is Devastating in Brady Corbet's Monumental Symphony of Immigrant Experience". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 10 September 2024.
  46. ^ Hess, Liam (1 September 2024). "Is 'The Brutalist' This Year's Surprise Awards Season Contender?". Vogue. Retrieved 10 September 2024.
  47. ^ Abraham, Raphael (2 September 2024). "Five stars for The Brutalist — postwar epic of architecture and survival with Adrien Brody". Financial Times. Retrieved 10 September 2024.
  48. ^ Bleasdale, John (3 September 2024). "The Brutalist: ambitious American saga shows the distinctive vision of Brady Corbet". Sight and Sound. Retrieved 10 September 2024.
  49. ^ "Daniel Blumberg". The Royal Drawing School. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  50. ^ "HYPER! – A PERSONAL JOURNEY INTO ART AND SOUND". Deichtorhallen.de. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  51. ^ "Snoeck". Snoeck.de. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  52. ^ "UNION". Union-gallery.com. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  53. ^ "MACRO (@macromuseoroma) • Instagram photos and videos". Instagram.com. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  54. ^ and a series of drawings made for MK Gallery, Milton Keynes
  55. ^ ""The Experience We Were Supposed to be Having": ASAD RAZA on DIY Intimacy, Édouard Glissant, and Home Cooking - 032c". 032c.com. 9 June 2020. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  56. ^ "Matt's Gallery - MattFlix". Mattsgallery.org. Archived from the original on 26 June 2020. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  57. ^ "Black Album / White Cube - Kunsthal". Kunsthal.nl. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  58. ^ "An indie band that's Yuck, but in a good way - the Jewish Chronicle". Archived from the original on 25 June 2020. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
  59. ^ "DANIEL IN THE LION'S DEN 『DANIEL IN THE LION'S DEN』｜BIG NOTHING". bignothing.blog88.fc2.com. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  60. ^ "Daniel In The Lion's Den by Daniel Blumberg". Amazon.co.jp. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  61. ^ Battan, Carrie (15 April 2013). "Yuck Frontman Daniel Blumberg Leaves Band". Pitchfork. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  62. ^ "Yu(c)k - Automatic". Vimeo. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  63. ^ "Oupa: Forget". Pitchfork. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  64. ^ "Hebronix w/ Low - April 2013 (Live - Full set)". YouTube. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  65. ^ "Somatic Archaeology, Daniel Blumberg, Boiled Egg". Mottodistribution.com. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  66. ^ "Hebronix: Unreal". Pitchfork. Retrieved 8 March 2019.
  67. ^ "Hebronix / Howling Hex announce new Heb-Hex 7" single". All Tomorrow's Parties. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  68. ^ "Neil Michael Hagerty & the Howling Hex at Primavera 2016". YouTube. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
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