Music
Press
"Mark DuBerry’s album Head Room brings a breath of fresh air which reminds me of many years ago when there weren’t very many new progressive rock releases and I turned my attention to other types of music. At the time I discovered Jazz-Rock which was then still called New Age, not to be confused with New Wave, which later in certain cases became known as World Music. This is the great era of Pat Metheny or that of Windham Hill Records who produced (and still produce by the way) artists like William Ackerman, Mark Isham or George Winston. Head Room is an album which is totally in line with a lot of these artists. More particularly and personally, it reminds me of the very fine Indian Summer by Friedemann Witecka or the more classical music of John Themis, even if in this case it is a lot more varied and doesn’t contain a lot of the pure New Age soothing or relaxing type of music. The music of Mark DuBerry without doubt owes that variety to his numerous stated influences which range from Peter Gabriel to Weather Report, while passing through Mike Oldfield. It is a mixture of Jazz, Rock, ethnic music and many other styles. Electronic sounds produced on the keyboards are followed by the acoustic sounds of a Spanish guitar or bagpipes. Nervy Rock or Jazzy rhythms alternate with other more soothing ones, or again folk singing from diverse origins (Africa, the Middle-East or Japan). Head Room is a good instrumental album which invites you on a voyage, exterior or interior and in time or space. An album which it is good to let yourself be taken along with…"
(translated from the French) - ‘Prog Resiste’, a Belgian magazine of Progressive Rock, Issue 48 April 2007.
“Mark DuBerry is a Dublin based songwriter blending the likes of jazz rock, electronic, prog rock and synth based compositions. This 8 track album is released through his own label. The album is a lovely blend of jazzy electric guitars, some almost classical acoustic guitar sounds and lush washes of synth. The overall sounds range from the almost Steve Reich like repetitive guitar sounds of opening track Tribute to a much more prog rock sounding version of the likes of The Future Sound of London, take in a bit of seventies breezy jazz rock along the way and you end up with a highly entertaining album.” - Road Records, Dublin, October 2006
Discography
CD1: 'Escalate', released 2001
CD2: 'Head Room', released June 2006. Radio airplay for the album mentioned above.
Photos
Bio
Mark DuBerry is a musician from Ireland. He plays and writes music which is a hybrid of electronic-ambient, progressive rock, classical and jazz-fusion. He has always been drawn to music which combines and blends different genres as he finds this sort of creative fusion the most interesting. Artists like Yes, Pat Metheny, John Scofield, Weather Report, The Yellowjackets, David Sylvian, Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, Brian Eno and Pete Namlook are among his main influences.
Mark was a classical guitarist during the early phase of his career, playing concert and other venues in and around Dublin. Later on, he progressed to jazz-fusion guitar and composition and wrote music for jazz big bands and other groups in both London and Dublin. Among his projects at this time, he produced his first CD entitled 'Escalate'. The first track 'Freefall' won an award of merit in the Unisong International Song Contest in 1998. He also released an album of 'New Age music with depth' entitled 'Openings', which was a collaboration with another musician, David Hammond.
Mark was also lead guitarist in a Steely Dan tribute band which played gigs in and around Dublin for a number of years. He is currently concentrating on gigging and promoting his 2nd album ‘Head Room’ as well as composing music for his next project. The title, 'Head Room', suggests a mental space, a state of mind, an inner world full of archetypal images and themes which is what the music is all about.
Recent gigs have been in and around Dublin and County Wicklow, Ireland to date.
'Head Room' has been played on Ireland’s RTE radio by John Creedon on Late Date as well as Dynamic Independent Radio, WDYN in New York. The 4th track ‘High Flyer’ has been nominated by listeners into the top 20 Electronic tracks on American Idol Underground on several occasions over the last year or so, reaching no. 12 in February and no. 3 in April 2007.
Website: http://www.markduberry.com
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/markduberry
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