Equally at ease in a New York City nightclub or a dusty village in West Africa and with akin enthusiasm for rap, Messaien, klezmer or Monk, Bermel is comfortable with any manifestation of the human soul. This naturalness in embracing our variegated humanity is perhaps what enables him to write such compelling music?music in which "each note counts," as New York Times music critic Anthony Tommasini wrote of a Bermel piece.
Performed by Bermel on the clarinet, along with cellist Fred Sherry, pianist Christopher Taylor, the Borromeo String Quartet, violist Paul Neubauer and others, and elegantly recorded by producer Judy Sherman, these eight works present, for the first time, an overview of Bermel?s small-ensemble writing. Soul Garden is an album of consistently engaging chamber works?clean, smart and unique music. Bermel?s is a garden in which to linger.
