2nd Preview Track from Steve Lawson/Daniel Berkman Album

I have SO much new music coming out this year – duo projects with Mike Outram, Michael Manring, Catherine Marie Charlton, Neil Alexander and this one with Daniel Berkman.

If you remember, Daniel and I did two gigs together in January, after being introduced by mutual friends Artemis and Keith Crusher – we met just before the first gig we had booked, and decided there and then that instead of doing two solo sets, we’d just play duo stuff all night. We did the same thing the second night.

So this tune is from the second gig we did, at the Orange Room in Oakland:

Bass-wise there’s are some interesting things going on – firstly, the bass itself is a Modulus Quantum TBX fretted 6 that I was loaned for the tour – a truly remarkable instrument. Love it to bits. The solo/bass melody section is in three parts – firstly the distorted whammy pedal part, heavily influenced by the kind of bends and dive-bombs that David Torn used to do with the Steinberger Transtrem on his Klein guitars – keeping the bends and shifts as much a fluid part of the melody as possible.

That’s followed by a clean melody part, which then gives away to a bit that alternates high and low parts, tapped with each hand, so the bass line and melody are both played live rather than looping one or the other. As that section goes on, I switch to tapping the high part with my slide, and then morph that in a slide melody… So loads going on.

Meanwhile Daniel plays a dizzying array of percussion sounds, following every twist and turn and simultaneously playing synth! A truly remarkable musician.

Enjoy!