The other day on NPR I heard an interview with Erik Friedlander, the son of one of my favorite photographers, Lee Freidlander. Erik is a cellist, who started out playing folk guitar, and as a result does a lot of “picking” on the cello, a sound that seems pretty unique to me.
He played some tunes from his latest CD, BLOCK ICE AND PROPANE, and they knocked me out. He also improvised in the studio, live, on a passage the interviewer read from Kerouac’s ON THE ROAD, and it too was terrific.
A lot of the music on the CD was created that way, improvising live in the recording studio. The music came out of Friedlander’s memories of criss-crossing the country with his family as a kid, riding the old two lane blacktops, looking out at the landscapes they passed through, or the passing lights or starry sky driving at night.
That accounts for the deep feeling in his music, at least on this CD, of an earlier time in the USA, not exactly a folk feeling, but that kind of “Americana” feeling you get from Aran Copland’s compositions, or Pete Seeger’s instrumental tunes.
I hope that doesn’t put anyone off BLOCK ICE AND PROPANE. It’s really unlike anything I’ve ever heard, certainly in terms of music for the cello. Check it out, and let me know what you think.
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3 comments:
i know what you're saying - erik's approach to cello -style -music- studio is definately unique. another guy to keep an ear open to is rufus cappadocia (5 string cello) who sometimes collaborates with bethany yarrow(peter's daughter fr/pp&m). they seem to be from the same school of 'definately something'. cellos, along with upright basses, hollow bodied guitars, etc., have that deep vibration against the body that makes music physical. when you've got oodles of talent like erik and rufus (along with ideas and feeling) you can make that live studio improv stuff really work. happened to watch 'let it be' last night and listened to the 'naked'cd today. is it that "americana" thing, or is it hearing creativity in the 'process' of becoming - before it gets processed and packaged?
Lal
Very interesting. I called up Friedlander on Rhapsody and found that they have not put Block Ice & Propane up yet. But I did listen to a sampler playlist from his previous albums: Prowl, Maldoror, Quake, Grains of Paradise, and The Watchman.
I like the music. It reminds me of John McLaughlin's excellent work with the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Shakti, with a Jewish tinge to it.
Thanks for pulling my coat.
Hey guys, glad you dig him too. I saw that there were earlier CDs of his music, but those looked more electric and produced. BLOCK ICE AND PROPANE, or at least what I heard him perform on that NPR show, was all solo, an acoustic, which gave it more of that "Americana" feel I was talking about, more folksy (not "folky") and earthy and out in the air and countryside and on the road etc.
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