About
David Bernabo has been a fixture on the Pittsburgh music scene for the past nine years, enthusiastically throwing himself into his own projects, friends' project, and variety of art and video work. David currently performs and composes for Host Skull and Host Skull MODULES, Ex-Kids, dance ensemble Gia T. Presents, and the alter-ego DJ Responsibility. Previous projects include Assembly, Vocal Assembly, Vale and Year, Boxstep, and duos with Nathan Hall, Daryl Fleming, and Brandon Masterman. He has worked with Corey Layman on two video game soundtracks. March 2012 will see the first Inhabit Host Skull art installation that allows viewers to contribute recordings to an everchanging sound installation.
Select Projects
November 2010 | Nina Sarnelle's Body in Ten Parts | Music Contributor
October 1, 2010 | Jem Finer's Shortplayer - World Premiere | Music Coordinator, Gong
August 2010 | Gia Cacalano's The Next Installment | Music Contributor
July 2010 | Justin Hopper - Public Record | Supplied solo and duo music (with Nathan Hall)
May 2010 | Design, Art, and Technology Awards | Performance and Installations
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Shortly after graduating high school, David joined the chamber rock group, Boxstep, on Overcoat Recordings. After touring nationally (and internationally, if you count Canada), David contributed to a Pavememt compilation on Homesleep Records in Italy and Boxstep's full-length Back Roads, also on Homesleep. Prior to the release of that record, drummer Greg Cislon and David Bernabo split off as the duo Vale and Year and started a close collaboration that lasted until 2006.
Vale and Year entered the world as a studio project when Modey Lemon member Jason Kirker went on tour and left Vale and Year the use of his studio. After three days of learning how to work the tape machine and board, Vale and Year recorded A Perfect History, a stylistically varied album that utilized a wealth of instruments, odd recording techniques, a huge wooden room, and some very sincere songs. The album earned praises from City Paper's Justin Hopper and The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Ed Masley. Vale and Year went on to tour and play shows with Early Day Miners, The Dirty Projectors, Okkervil River, The Evens, Prefuse 73, Impossible Shapes, Wilco, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Tatsuya Nakatani, Jack Wright, and Nina Nastasia.
Vale and Year made four more full-length albums, three EPs, and a book published by Incredibly Thin. After self-releasing the first three albums, Vale and Year signed to Enamel Records. In 2006, after a deal with Fat Possum fell through, Vale and Year went on hiatus.
David started his solo career with an acoustic album called Word Roses, released on Sort Of Records. Following that, David started collaborating with a number of Pittsburgh musicians. In 2007, he joined Daryl Fleming and the Public Domain and engineered and played piano on The Blockhouse and Bloodhound Sessions album. David also engineered and played accordion, piano, and guitar on Boca Chica's well-regarded Transform into Beasts. David also released three albums for Sort Of Records in 2007 and had his first solo art show at ModernFormations Gallery. The art show consisted of graphic scores, some for glass and paper, some created with nails and screws, and one score that filled an entire room. The scores were performed by violinist Ben Harris and David at the exhibit's opening reception.
2008 saw the introduction of the three-piece improv-noise band DBLD, collaborations with the chamber group Alia Musica Pittsburgh, scoring a Nintedo WiiWare game (Critter Round-Up) with Corey Layman, and joining the 27-piece HiTEC, led by filmmaker and musician tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE. The imprint Abstract On Black expanded with new releases by John Berndt, Jack Wright and Alban Bailly, Alia Musica Pittsburgh, and Chicago's The Friction Brothers (Colligan, Lonberg-Holm, Zerang)
Throughout the end of 2008 and into 2009, David quietly assembled a new project, eventually called Assembly. The resulting album was Happener-Magicker, a wide-ranging work consisting of 25 musicians and incredible artwork by Owl Kahol. The album was accompanied by a release show that featured the work of many poets and writers, filmmakers, and the band, Meeting of Important People. The release show was streamed in its entirety by Incredibly Thin. After the release, a website was created by Lin Clark to stream the album and provide a free download.
Prior to the release of Happener-Magicker, David collaborated with composer and pianist Nathan Hall on a self-titled album that combines Nathan's compositions with improvisation. The result is a peaceful classical jazz album in the ECM tradition. Soon, Corey Layman and David were asked to contribute to another Nintendo Wii game called Rock of the Dead. The duo, who work as the production company, Woolslayer and Main, created eight classical songs by the likes of Bach, Orff, and others, but done up in the style of hard rock, prog, and metal. The game will be released in the Summer of 2010.
In April 2010, David released his first work at DJ Responsibility in the form of a one copy CD called Formalism. The CD was presented as a listening station in the Carnegie Libary of Pittsburgh's Music Department from April 19 - May 31, 2010. There is no official release of the album, but the sole copy will be avaible at the library after the initial installation. The project attempts to create a contradiction between exclusive and publicly-shared.
David was recently awarded the DATA Award for 2010 Musical Artist of the Year for his work on Happener-Magicker, Formalism, and the Nintendo Wii score. Other 2010 projects include engineering work on the well-received CD/Tab Book by David Leicht and Raymond Morin called Petrifidelity.
Recently, David has formed a duo with multi-instrumentalist Will Dyar (Oakley Hall, Skinks) called Host Skull. Host Skull has released two pieces of music so far. The first, Fourth River, is an 11-minute composition for modular synth, ensemble trio, classical guitar, and percussion. Originally released as a digital download through Chicago's Contraphonic label, a limited 7" version will appear in 2012. The band has also released the full length Totally Fatalist LP on Contraphonic's sister-label, Antephonic. The full LP includes many contributions from Pittsburgh and Sante Fe musicians, along with fantastic artwork by London's Adam Dant and design by Pittsburgh's Bearded. The band is in the process of setting up multiple Inhabit Host Skull art installations, performing the dance/composition/theatre pieces called MODULES and UTOPIA, and working on a second full-length album.