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artist: Erik Friedlander
title: Maldoror
date: 2003
label: brassland
genre: Instrumental
rls. date: Feb/2004
tracks: 10
bitrate: 192kbps
size: 55,6 MB
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THE ARTIST
The first thing to know about Erik Friedlander is that he is a
unique cellist whose work blurs genre borders. Is he a composer
or improviser? Is this classical music or jazz? The LA Times
put it best when they wrote, "Friedlander's performance clearly
positions him as the first potential star performer on his
instrument." Maldoror is his first solo recording and consists
of ten improvisations inspired by the early surrealist poems of
Lautreamont and recorded at Berlin's Teldex Studios. Intense,
mystical, and beautiful, it is a journey into music's darkest
heart.s
THE RECORD
In a darkened recording studio in old East Berlin, in a
seance-like atmosphere, a time-traveling collaboration took
place between the lawless black humor of the 19th-century poet
Isidore Ducasse and the daring and sensitivity of the 21st
century cellist Erik Friedlander. Producer Michael Montes, an
audience of one, had carefully selected 10 excerpts from
Ducasse's Maldoror which he believed would be particularly good
for inciting musical inspiration. In the course of one hour the
excerpts were placed in front of Erik one at a time. He
responded to each excerpt with what you hear on this recording.
The music is beautiful, mystical, intense--a journey into
music's darkest heart.
THE WRITER
Andre Breton wrote that the Comte de Lautreamont's Les Chants
de Maldoror is "the expression of a revelation so complete it
seems to exceed human potential." Little is known about its
pseudonymous author aside from his real name, Isidore Ducasse,
his birth in Uruguay in 1846, and his early death in Paris in
1870. Lautreamont's writings bewildered his contemporaries but
the Surrealists modeled their efforts after his menacing
visions of angels, gravediggers, hermaphrodites, pederasts,
lunatics and strange children. Maldoror includes the full text
of the poems that inspired Erik's improvisations, laid out in
an elegant package by designer Heung-Heung Chin.
BACKGROUND
Erik's dad was the noted art photographer Lee Friedlander,
known best by musicians and jazz aficionados for the cover
photos he took for Atlantic Records in the 60s. His passion for
r&b and jazz greatly influenced Erik, whose earliest memories
are of a household filled with the sounds of his father's
subjects--Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, McCoy Tyner, Ornette
Coleman, and John Coltrane. Erik's been playing the cello since
age 8, and we assure you that if you have a concept of what
that instrument can do, he will reshape it.
Maldoror is Erik's first solo recording, though it's hardly a
debut. He has toured Europe many times, released recordings on
labels like ECM and Tzadik, and played with some of the biggest
names in contemporary music, people like John Zorn, Dave
Douglas, Laurie Anderson, and Joe Lovano. He's also accompanied
pop acts ranging from Alanis Morissette to Courtney Love.
Erik came into his own in the 1990s as he became an integral
part of NYC's downtown jazz scene. He played with artists like
saxophonist John Zorn, tenor player Joe Lovano, and trumpeter
Dave Douglas; he toured and recorded with two of his own
groups, Chimera and the still-extant Topaz. Erik has played on
records released on labels like Tzadik and Avant, receiving
notices in publications like the Boston Globe, The Wire, and
Billboard which wrote, "Friedlander [is] one of today's most
ingenious and forward- thinking musical practitioners."
(http://www.brassland.org)
artist's site:
(http://www.erikfriedlander.com/)
_______________________________________________________________________
01-May It Please Heaven [03:30]
02-One Should Let One's Fingernails Grow [03:08]
03-The Wind Groans [05:30]
04-O Stern Mathematics [04:54]
05-The Palace Of Pleasures [04:33]
06-Here Comes The Madwoman [02:53]
07-I Am Filthy [04:52]
08-Flights Of Starlings [03:47]
09-He Contemplates The Moon [03:31]
10-A Sewing Machine And An Umbrella [03:45]
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40:23 min
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