Daniel Blumberg | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Blumberg in 2025 | |
| Background information | |
| Also known as | Oupa, Hebronix |
| Born | 1990 (age 35–36)[1] |
| Origin | London, England |
| Genres | Experimental,indie rock,slowcore,electronic,film score |
| Occupations | Visual artist, musician, composer, songwriter |
| Instruments | Vocals,piano,keyboards,synthesizer,guitar,harmonica,clarinet |
| Years active | 2005–present |
| Labels | Mute Records,Fat Possum,XL,ATP, RecoOtoRoku, Boiled Egg |
| Member of | GUO |
| Formerly of | Yuck,Cajun Dance Party |
| Website | boiledegg.org |
Daniel Blumberg (born 1990) is an English artist,[2] musician, songwriter[3] and composer.[4] He is known for his score for the 2024 filmThe Brutalist, for which he won theBAFTA Award for Best Original Music and theAcademy Award for Best Original Score.
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Blumberg was brought up in aJewish family.[5] In 2005, when he was only 15 years old, Blumberg co-founded and sang vocals for the bandCajun Dance Party, releasing their only album,The Colourful Life, in 2008.[6] From 2009 to 2013, Blumberg was frontman and guitarist for the indie rock bandYuck, whoseself-titled 2011 debut was released to positive reviews.[7] During his time in Yuck, Blumberg also performed as Oupa, releasing the album,Forget, in 2011.[8]
He left Yuck in 2013 to focus on other projects, the first of which wasUnreal by Hebronix,[9] a solo project by Blumberg produced byNeil Michael Hagerty, which was released byATP Recordings in 2013. This was followed by a split single with Neil Michael Hagerty, released under the name Heb-Hex.[10]Since 2013, Blumberg has worked mostly aroundCafe Oto utilising Oto Project Space[11] and working regularly with Seymour Wright, Billy Steiger, Tom Wheatley, Ute Kanngiesser, Ross Lambert and Elvin Brandhi.
He explained toIl 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."[12]
Mute Records released Blumberg's debut solo album,Minus, in May 2018.[13]Minus was recorded byScott Walker's producerPeter Walsh with a group of radical musicians whom Blumberg met atCafe Oto including Billy Steiger (violin), Tom Wheatley (double bass), Ute Kanngiesser (cello) and Terry Day (vocals).Jim White played drums on the album.[14]Minus received extremely positive reviews:The Times gave it 5 out of 5 and hailed it as a "modern classic",[15] whileBillboard described it as "one of the more unique and exquisite records you're likely to hear this year."[16] Amongst other critical praise for the album,Rough Trade ranked it the sixth best album of 2018.[17]
On 11 April 2018,Cafe Oto's OtoRoku released a live album,[18] recorded on 28 February with Billy Steiger, Tom Wheatley and Ute Kanngiesser. It was mixed byMarta Salogni, amongst others.
On 5 June 2018, Blumberg, Steiger and Wheatley performed two tracks fromMinus, "The Bomb" and "Minus", onLater... with Jools Holland.[19]
Liv was released byMute Records in December 2018. It was originally recorded live atSarm Studios, London in 2014 and features Kohhei Matsuda on monosynth, Billy Steiger on violin and Tom Wheatley on double bass.[20] Blumberg performed in various configurations across Europe in support of the album including HamburgElbphilharmonie alongsideArto Lindsay,[21] plus international festivals including Katowice Ars Cameralis, The Hague Crossing Border, Milan Triennale[22] andEnd of the Road Festival.
On 17 December 2019 he performed with a motorbike in a duo with Tom Wheatley for ICA'sPere Portabella retrospective.[23]
In March 2020, he performed a live stream concert at Cafe Oto as part of a fundraiser for the venue which incorporated extended sections of live drawing as well as live versions of his songs.[24] The concert was reviewed in a half-page piece written by Abi Bliss inThe Wire the following month.[25]
On&On, his second album onMute Records was released on 31 July 2020. It featured the same core group of players asMinus, with the addition of Elvin Brandhi performing vocoded vocals on the track "Silence Breaker",[26] and Peter Walsh returned to production duties. Initial reviews were overwhelmingly positive withFinancial Times giving it 5 stars and describing it as 'a startlingly good album',[27]The Independent called it 'an extraordinary work' in a 4-star review,[28] andUncut hailed it as "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".[26]
His third studio albumGUT 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.[29]
Blumberg performs with saxophonist Seymour Wright as GUO. Their first release, GUO1,[30] was self-released in 2016, with a text fromDavid Toop. In 2017, GUO2 was released by Cafe Oto's label Oto Roku,[31] and included text from American filmmaker and actorBrady Corbet.
GUO4 was released on Mute Records on 20 September 2019,[32] featuring text from Fran Edgerley ofTurner Prize-winning collectiveAssemble[33] and a short film byPeter Strickland.
BAHK,[34] Blumberg's ongoing collaboration with Elvin Brandhi (of the duo Yeah You)[35] has encompassed sporadic concerts, residencies and collaborative music, drawing and film. The group released their first track on the Qu Junktions compilationHope You're Well in May 2020.[36] The pair also devised a video work andsilverpoint drawings for Blumberg's seriesSilver Dinner which was broadcast via Homecooking in June 2020[37] in which Blumberg collaborated with Japanese musicianKeiji Haino.[38] In December 2021 BAHK premiered a 15 minute film work via AQNB calledAlternatives for a Future Society beyond Head Infected Bodies.[39]
In 2018,Curzon Cinemas/British Film Institute (BFI) commissioned Blumberg to compose the music to launch theirAgnès Varda film seasonGleaning Truths,[40] which was announced in July 2018 and went on to tour the UK.[4]
In 2019, GUO collaborated with British directorPeter Strickland who created a short film entitledGUO4,[41] to coincide with the release of the record on Mute which premiered at 76thVenice International Film Festival in August 2019.[42] It debuted in the UK at the 63rd BFILondon Film Festival in October 2019.[43]
In October 2019, GUO collaborated with American film directorBrady Corbet on a short film and performance entitledGYUTO which premiered at London's Close-Up Film Centre.[44]
In July 2020, it was announced thatMona Fastvold's filmThe World to Come — starringVanessa Kirby,Katherine Waterson,Casey Affleck andChristopher Abbott — would premiere in competition at the77th Venice Film Festival, for which Blumberg composed the original score.[45] Avant-garde musicians includingPeter Brötzmann,Josephine Foster and Steve Noble feature on the score, which is produced byPeter Walsh. Following the premiere,The Observer described Blumberg's work as 'superbly original'.[46]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".[47] Mute released the score on limited edition vinyl and CD on 14 January 2022, featuring two extended solo improvisations byPeter Brötzmann as physical edition exclusives. In May 2022, Blumberg won his firstIvor Novello Award for Best Original Film Score forThe World To Come.[48]
Blumberg composed the score toBrady Corbet's 2024 filmThe Brutalist, which starsAdrien 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",[49] whichVogue 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".[50] The score plays a particularly prominent role in the film, being described by theFinancial Times as "imposing" and bySight and Sound "muscular and boisterous".[51][52] The film is dedicated to the memory ofScott 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 ofMica Levi or the solemn grandeur ofTerence Blanchard.".[49] His score has since also been seen as one of the best scores of 2024, receiving a variety of accolades, including aBAFTA Award as well as theAcademy Award for Best Original Score.[53]
In 2025, Blumberg produced the score forMona Fastvold's musical filmThe Testament of Ann Lee andGianfranco Rosi'sBelow the Clouds, the latter marked his first documentary score.
| Year | Title | Director | Studio | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | GUO4 | Peter Strickland | Mindwax | Short film |
| 2020 | The World to Come | Mona Fastvold | Killer Films Sea Change Media M.Y.R.A. Entertainment Yellow Bear Films Hype Film Ingenious Media Bleecker Street | N/a |
| 2023 | Cheer Up | Brady Corbet | N/a | Music video |
| 2024 | The Brutalist | Brookstreet Pictures Kaplan Morrison | Academy Award for Best Original Score BAFTA Award for Best Original Music Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score | |
| 2025 | Below the Clouds | Gianfranco Rosi | 21Uno Film Stemal Entertainment Rai Cinema | N/a |
| The Testament of Ann Lee | Mona Fastvold | Kaplan Morrison Intake Film Proton Cinema Mid March Media Mizzel Media | N/a |
Blumberg is a visual artist working primarily in the medium ofdrawing. He creates figurative drawings with the ancient technique ofsilverpoint, also usingwatercolour andgraphite. In 2015 he was awarded a scholarship to study a diploma in traditional drawing techniques at London'sRoyal Drawing School.[54]
In 2019, he participated in the Hyper! Exhibition[55] atDeichtorhallen, Hamburg, in which he showed a large-scale graphite drawing. Also on display were ten of his miniature watercolours and two 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."[56]
He presented his first solo showUN-ERASE-ABLE in 2019 at Union Gallery in London displaying a selection of his silverpoint miniatures which he calls "micrograms".[57]
In 2020 he continued his work with silverpoint in a short work made for JOMO, a series by the MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome and a series of drawings made for MK Gallery,Milton Keynes.[58] He also exhibited in digital media at Homecooking[59] for whom he created a series calledSILVER DINNER combining drawing with music, performance and video in collaboration withKeiji Haino and Elvin Brandhi.
He composed the music forMarianna Simnett's video piece "Dance, Stanley Dance" which premiered at Matts Gallery, London in May 2020.[60]
From 20 June 2020 to 10 January 2021, Blumberg exhibited a large graphite drawing at theKunsthal in Rotterdam for the exhibitionBlack Album, White Cube alongside artists includingAlbert Oehlen, Scott King andMark Leckey.[61]
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