Daniel Blumberg

Daniel Blumberg (born 1990) is an English artist, musician, songwriter and composer. He is known for his score for the 2024 film The Brutalist, for which he won the BAFTA Award for Best Original Music and the Academy Award for Best Original Score.

Blumberg was brought up in a Jewish family. In 2005, when he was only 15 years old, Blumberg co-founded and sang vocals for the band Cajun Dance Party, releasing their only album, The Colourful Life, in 2008. From 2009 to 2013, Blumberg was frontman and guitarist for the indie rock band Yuck, whose self-titled 2011 debut was released to positive reviews. During his time in Yuck, Blumberg also performed as Oupa, releasing the album, Forget, in 2011.

He left Yuck in 2013 to focus on other projects, the first of which was Unreal by Hebronix, a solo project by Blumberg produced by Neil Michael Hagerty, which was released by ATP Recordings in 2013. This was followed by a split single with Neil Michael Hagerty, released under the name Heb-Hex. Since 2013, Blumberg has worked mostly around Cafe Oto utilising Oto Project Space and working regularly with Seymour Wright, Billy Steiger, Tom Wheatley, Ute Kanngiesser, Ross Lambert and Elvin Brandhi.

He explained to Il Manifesto in a 2019 interview "Live music must be live. I can't say what will happen from one concert to another. Sound with different formations and combinations. Now I'm in a trio with Billy and Tom. The space and context are always different and for this reason the music we produce is never the same."

Mute Records released Blumberg's debut solo album, Minus, in May 2018. Minus was recorded by Scott Walker's producer Peter Walsh with a group of radical musicians whom Blumberg met at Cafe Oto including Billy Steiger (violin), Tom Wheatley (double bass), Ute Kanngiesser (cello) and Terry Day (vocals). Jim White played drums on the album. Minus received extremely positive reviews: The Times gave it 5 out of 5 and hailed it as a "modern classic", while Billboard described it as "one of the more unique and exquisite records you're likely to hear this year." Amongst other critical praise for the album, Rough Trade ranked it the sixth best album of 2018.

On 11 April 2018, Cafe Oto's OtoRoku released a live album, recorded on 28 February with Billy Steiger, Tom Wheatley and Ute Kanngiesser. It was mixed by Marta Salogni, amongst others.

On 5 June 2018, Blumberg, Steiger and Wheatley performed two tracks from Minus, "The Bomb" and "Minus", on Later... with Jools Holland.

Liv was released by Mute Records in December 2018. It was originally recorded live at Sarm Studios, London in 2014 and features Kohhei Matsuda on monosynth, Billy Steiger on violin and Tom Wheatley on double bass. Blumberg performed in various configurations across Europe in support of the album including Hamburg Elbphilharmonie alongside Arto Lindsay, plus international festivals including Katowice Ars Cameralis, The Hague Crossing Border, Milan Triennale and End of the Road Festival.