FOR YOUR GRAMMY® CONSIDERATION:
Best Contemporary Instrumental Album
SPACE PUNK AND OTHER JUNK
Best Instrumental Composition
MAN'S BEST FRIEND
“Space Punk and Other Junk” full album available here:
“Man’s Best Friend” available here:
About the Music
After more than two decades as an in-demand sideman, Alec Berlin has made “Space Punk and Other Junk”, an album that celebrates both his love of concise pop-rock songwriting and his expertise as a guitarist.
'Space Punk and Other Junk' showcases equally Alec’s compositional prowess and his endlessly inventive guitar skills. Over the course of 12 original instrumental songs, Alec crafts hooks that will have listeners singing along, despite the lack of words.
At the center of it all is Alec’s guitar playing, which somehow manages to sound both vintage and futuristic all at once. Stand-out track “Man’s Best Friend” is the perfect crystallization of Alec’s music: cinematic in scope, it moves through a variety of moods and styles, each deeply rooted in the energy and emotion found in all of Alec’s work.
About the artist
Alec Berlin has been living and working in New York City for 25 years, and in that time he has performed with Elton John, James Taylor, Rob Thomas, Ben Folds, Kenny Wheeler, and Rufus Wainwright. He has played dozens of Broadway shows, including Rent, Wicked, The Lion King, and Bright Star (written by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell); and has appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and Good Morning America. Berlin was the guitarist in the hit Broadway show Come From Away, including in the film version currently streaming on Apple TV+.
reviews
"Alec delivers stunning and immersive instrumental pieces that never overpower the songs’ friendly formulas, instead augmenting them, perhaps making the record more akin to a soundtrack or a cinematic effort. Not compositions for a musician-powered audience: instead, for everyone keen enough to delve into ‘Space Punk and Other Junk’. That’s the strength of the project: being friendly and accessible.”
- Mesmerized
'Man’s Best Friend' is a triumph of instrumental pop rock music that’s full of energy, melody and virtuosity.”
- Plastic Magazine
"Alec Berlin’s 'Space Punk and Other Junk' is a genre-defying album that merges the best of space rock and punk rock with an experimental and electronic twist.”
- Illustrate Magazine