I had just moved to San Francisco in 1995 and by 1996 I was in my honeymoon period with the Kora. I was 26 and living in North Beach, the perfect place for a beat poet aficionado and aspiring musician to find his voice.

I'd only been playing kora a year but had many requests from friends and family to record a tape. I'd been a drummer, guitarist, keyboardist, composer and singer/songwriter for years and never expected my first release to be on an instrument from West Africa. But all the signs pointed toward a future in the kora.

When I bought my first kora from my teacher; guitarist and luthier Alan Perlman, I started learning the traditional songs of the griots right away. I was already hip to the greats like Amadu Bansang Jobarte, Toumani Diabate, Tata Dindin and Alhaji Bai Konte. I listened to these guys obsessively, copied their style, learned of their culture and practiced for hours a day. I got pretty good, too. But I also attached a pickup to the bridge and plugged it in to my guitar effects to create an altogether different kind of music. Everything took off when I bought the Oberheim Echoplex and the Digitech Whammy 2 pedal. Suddenly I was creating other worlds! At the time I was also obsessed with Robert Fripp and his Soundscapes and thought I could approach that type of art form using the kora.

I connected with producer/musician Mark Orton of the Tin Hat Trio through a mutual friend. Mark and I both went to the Hartt School of Music in Connecticut and he was interested in what I was doing with kora and electronics. He was new to the city like me so our approach to the record was very free spirited and creative. I got his Tin Hat Trio their first gig in San Francisco at a tea house called Pure Tea on Polk Street. I had a regular solo kora gig there. Everything was clicking. I had plenty of material and now an awesome recording engineer.

My friend John Stanley took some black and white shots of me with my kora, sitting on the front steps of my Union Street flat, facing the sun, posing on my rooftop with Alcatraz in the distance. It was a love affair with the kora and with San Francisco.

In 2008 I decided to go back to the original tapes and add more parts. Over the years I had developed as a composer and had a much more refined pallet of sounds, especially those derived from the kora. I added additional bass and percussion parts taken from knocking, plucking, rubbing and tapping the kora. Then I would pitch shift and tweak these sounds in Logic Pro to make EXS24 instruments out of them. All "Heartstrings" needed was a bit more bass and punch. Just enough to really bring the tracks to life. The finishing touch was to have it mastered by none other than David Earl, long time friend and collaborator, genius producer and logic ninja!

There's one word that comes to mind when I think of my first ever produced record........innocence. Still, when I listen to it today, I feel that all is well. I'm very proud of this little record.

1. Alieu
2. Travels
3. Foday Kabba (trad.)
4. Allah L'a Ke (trad.)
5. Simply
6. Kurra (trad.)
7. They Come In Dreams
8. Heartstrings
9. Kora For Miles
10. Gabriel's Imagination
11. Lullaby

Listen to: the entire album.

Release date: 1/30/2009
Daniel Berkman lives in California USA

Tagged as: World, New Age, African influenced, Remixed by Four Stones, World Influenced

1. Evil Must Die by My Woshin Mashin: Crossover-Electronic, Chaos-Pop
2. The In Between by Anton Cosmo: rock superstar to be
3. Sounds Of Chakras by Satori: healing, meditative ambient new age
4. Santa Take the Night Off by Emma Wallace: angst-free modern ragtime
5. Journey Into Subconscious by Satori: healing, meditative ambient new age
6. Relaxation Spa by Magnatune Compilation: the best music from Magnatune
7. Ambiencellist Part II by Claire Fitch: ambient cellist
8. Traces by Jesus in Japan: a reflective voice in a noisy world
9. Second Sight by Jami Sieber: enchanting cello compositions
10. Eric 2 by Eric Kamen: Urban Flamenco
11. Public Service Announcement (Instrumental) by The Proper Authorities: pulse-pounding, booty-shaking rock
12. Et Cetera by Roe: A journey into the deep, beyond the bounds of ambient music
13. Sangita by Fernwood: Music played by hand on instruments made of wood
14. JS Bach Trios on Guitar by Daniel Estrem: colorful classical guitar
15. Designer Bliss by Suchita Parte: ancient Indian songs in a modern blend
16. Collectors of Souls by Chiwawa: He who sings thinks no evil
17. CD1 The Sowebo Concert by Jay Kishor: Music without preservatives
18. Only a Tronic Selection by Ambient Teknology: upbeat underground with shades of new wave
19. Amber by Jay Kishor: Music without preservatives
20. We Live Lies by macabro: mechanical flowers under the electric sunset

• MP3: High quality MP3 variable-bit-rate files. Most people download these: they are audiophile files that play everywhere.
• ALAC: Perfect quality Apple Lossless format files. If you use iTunes or an iPod, get these. They're an exact audio copy of the original CD, and include the CD artwork and artist info. This is the same format as High Definition audio provided by the iTunes store.
• AAC: High quality Apple Audio Codec files. If you use iTunes or an iPod, these files sound great and include CD art and artist info. This is the standard format provided by the iTunes music store.
• WAV: Perfect quality WAV files. This format works everywhere, and is an exact audio copy of the original CD. It sounds fantastic. Album art and artist info is unfortunately not possible with this format.
• FLAC Perfect quality open source FLAC files. This is an open source audio format. It is an exact copy of the original CD, and includes CD artwork and artist info. Works great on Linux, VLC and many audio players based on open source.
• OGG: High quality open source OGG files. This is an open source audio format. It is a compressed (smaller file size) version of the original CD, and includes CD artwork and artist info. Works great on Linux, VLC and many audio players based on open source.
• 128k: Medium quality 128K MP3 files. These are medium audio quality MP3 files that will work on every device. The audio quality is good enough for most uses. These files are intended for cases where you want to conserve disk space.