{"product_id":"ernest-berk-electronic-music-1955-1984","title":"Ernest Berk - Electronic Music 1955-1984","description":"\u003ctable height=\"103\" style=\"width: 329px; height: 68.7814px;\"\u003e\n\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr style=\"height: 19.5938px;\"\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"width: 150.641px; height: 19.5938px;\"\u003eRelease Date\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"width: 162.359px; height: 19.5938px;\"\u003e11\/12\/2026\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr style=\"height: 10px;\"\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"width: 150.641px; height: 10px;\"\u003eFormat\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"width: 162.359px; height: 10px;\"\u003e2LP Black\/\u003cbr\u003e2CD\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr style=\"height: 19.5938px;\"\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"width: 150.641px; height: 19.5938px;\"\u003eLabel\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"width: 162.359px; height: 19.5938px;\"\u003eSub Rosa\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr style=\"height: 19.5938px;\"\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"width: 150.641px; height: 19.5938px;\"\u003eCatalogue Number\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"width: 162.359px; height: 19.5938px;\"\u003eSRV578\/\u003cbr\u003eSR578\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eErnest Berk fled Nazi Germany for London and spent three decades pioneering electronic music from a home-built studio - producing over 280 tape and musique concrète works, often to score his own radical expressionist dance. A true outsider-visionary, he shared the stage with Delia Derbyshire and Daphne Oram at the landmark 1968 Queen Elizabeth Hall electronic music concert, yet died in obscurity. This release restores Berk's place among Britain's most daring and most overlooked early sonic pioneers. Composing across three North London studios - Camden Road, Dorset Street, and the Diorama in Peto Place - Ernest Berk spent almost thirty years fusing electronic composition with contemporary dance in a way Britain had never seen and rarely has since. His closest counterpart wasn't British at all: the American composer-choreographer Alwin Nikolais, working an ocean away with the same radical instinct that sound and movement were one discipline, not two. Berk's musical language evolved from early tape manipulation, microphone recordings and radio interference towards electronically generated sounds produced with tone and white-noise generators. Yet through every technological shift, he stuck to a strict economy of means, using often just a handful of carefully chosen sound sources, pushed as far as they would go. Rhythm, pulse, and percussive tape loops sat at the centre of everything, a direct line back to his years as a dancer and percussionist. Gemini (Les Amies), Op. 52 is the clearest proof: a kettle lid, grinding and spinning across different surfaces, locked into a bed of percussion loops. He was also a compulsive editor of his own past, often returning to finished works, cutting them apart, and reusing recognisable motifs into new pieces. In Your Image, Op. 43 and No Fish (or Oh Mr. Bard), Op. 29 show this selfquotation at its most vivid. The latter appears here in an eleven-minute version that was one of a batch of tapes that disappeared from Berk's collection after his death and were presumed lost, until his friend and colleague Andreas Wirth, who had carefully looked after them for many years without knowing how best\u003cbr\u003eto secure their future, brought them to the attention of archivists in 2023. Dance was never incidental to Berk's music - it was the reason the music existed. He composed fourteen works for dancer and choreographer Rebecca Wilson across a collaboration that ran until 1976, and in 1971 co-founded the Dance Theatre Commune with his third wife, Ailsa Berk. Nocturne (While I was asleep), Op. 163, with its looped, breath-like pulses, also existed in an hour-long version made for the DTC's semi-dark, all-night 'Liberation' sessions. Decades later, Osterglocken, Op. 221 (1980 shows the same restless economy still at work with its subtle shifts of timbre, gesture, and pulse, distilled to their essence. For decades, Berk's place as a genuine pathfinder went unrecognised, and a body of work now known to total more than 280 compositions lay dormant and forgotten. This anthology is part of the ongoing work of bringing it back.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTracklist\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003eA1 Gemini (Les Amies), Op. 52 (1962) 08'46\u003cbr\u003eA2 Apparition, Op (1963) 03'54\u003cbr\u003eA3 Ritual, Op. 204 (1976) 10'46\u003cbr\u003eB1 Dream Sequence, Op. 111 (1968) 16'30\u003cbr\u003eB2 1936, in Commemoration of the Spanish Civil War, Op. 56 (1964) 05'47\u003cbr\u003eC1 126, Op. 126 (1969) 03'25\u003cbr\u003eC2 Osterglocken, Op. 221 (1980, Bourges version) 15'34\u003cbr\u003eC3 In Your Image, Op. 43 (1963, extended version) 04'42\u003cbr\u003eD1 Opus 201, Op. 201 (1976) 09'38\u003cbr\u003eD2 Nocturne (While I was asleep), Op. 163 (1972) 13'42\u003cbr\u003eCD1\u003cbr\u003e1 Apparition, Op. 54 (1963) 03'54\u003cbr\u003e2 1936, In Commemoration of the Spanish Civil War, Op. 56 (1964) 05'47\u003cbr\u003e3 No Fish (Oh Mr. Bard), Op. 29 (1963, extended version) 11'43\u003cbr\u003e4 Gemini (Les Amies), Op. 52 (1962) 08'46\u003cbr\u003e5 Plastic Wasteland, Op. 185 (1975) 05'13\u003cbr\u003e6 Emanti, Op. 170 (1973) 06'52\u003cbr\u003e7 Opus 201, Op. 201 (1976) 09'38\u003cbr\u003e8 Me, Me, Me, Op. 167 (1973) 10'32\u003cbr\u003e9 Ritual, Op. 204 (1976) 10'46\u003cbr\u003eCD2\u003cbr\u003e1 Dream Sequence, Op. 111 (1968) 16'30\u003cbr\u003e2 In Your Image, Op. 43 (1963, extended version) 04'42\u003cbr\u003e3 What's Up?, Op. 203 (1976) 13'48\u003cbr\u003e4 Osterglocken, Op. 221 (1980, Bourges version) 15'34\u003cbr\u003e5 126, Op. 126 (1969) 03'25\u003cbr\u003e6 Witches, no opus (1972) 06'11\u003cbr\u003e7 Nocturne (While I was asleep), Op. 163 (1972) 13'42\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Cargo","offers":[{"title":"2LP Black - SRV578","offer_id":56557195723131,"sku":null,"price":30.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"2CD - SR578","offer_id":56557195788667,"sku":null,"price":15.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0271\/3020\/0134\/files\/ERNESTBERK_ELECTRONICMUSIC19551984SR578HD.jpg?v=1793639536","url":"https:\/\/www.mixeduprecords.com\/products\/ernest-berk-electronic-music-1955-1984","provider":"Mixed Up Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}