Rock & Roll Bassist's 30-Year Journey Takes Divergent Paths With New CD Release

AUSTIN, TX. (Top40 Charts/ Hendrix Coughlan Media) - Austin-based recording artist Steve Bernal will debut his upcoming CD release Decibels in a series of local performances beginning with a special in-store preview at Waterloo Records & Video on February 18.

A 'cellist, bassist and composer whose work could be described as neoclassical or avant-garde, Mr. Bernal has played on 54 albums, toured with contemporary music artists including Alejandro Escovedo, and collaborated with eclectic pop artists such as Bill Callahan and Graham Reynolds.

"A deep passion for life and love inherent in my Latino blood has been the inspiration for my music," said Mr. Bernal. "And the culmination of the diverse musical genres I've played throughout my career is the inspiration for Decibels," he added.

An artist whose passion for music was first sparked as a child by the Cojunto dance music of his South Texas roots, Bernal was playing bass in downtown Houston nightclubs at age 15. His musical path led him to Austin in 1983, where he honed his skills playing a wide variety of musical styles.

Bernal's first national tour came in 1987 with a Reggae/Caribbean group called Dan Del Santo and His Professors of Pleasure, expanding his reach to new sounds from around the globe.

A recent collaboration with Argentine guitarist Federico Aubele led him down a new avenue, using computers to create new sounds.

From this new direction came one of the featured pieces of Decibels, "Pluto: Requiem for an Icy World," written by William Meadows for solo 'cello and computer-generated electronics in surround-sound.

Like the perpetual world traveler who is always looking ahead to the next unexplored land, Bernal's desire to conquer new horizons on the musical landscape has been the recurring theme of his career.

Austin Performance Schedule
February:
18 - Waterloo Records & Video, 600 N. Lamar Blvd., 5 PM
20 - Mexican American Cultural Center, 600 River Street 8 PM
(A portion of the proceeds from this performance will benefit Health Alliance for Austin Musicians)

Decibels, a Lanreb Music Records release, will soon be available through Napster, iTUNES, Rapsody and Amazon.com.
For more information, visit www.stevebernalmusic.com