ERIK FRIEDLANDER: Block Ice & Propane

Erik Friedlander

Block Ice & Propane

© 2007 Erik Friedlander (837101346429)

CD IN STOCK. ORDER NOW. Will ship immediately.

SPECIAL: 10% discount if you buy more than one copy of it today!

Taking his inspiration from American Roots music, Friedlander executes extraordinary finger-picking technique and reverberant tunings creating a new American cello music: lyrical, plain-spoken, and emotional.

notes

Produced by Erik Friedlander & Scott Solter
Executive Producers: Dick Connette & Erik Friedlander

Recorded at Pueblo Street August 22-23, 2005, San Francisco
Erik Friedlander: cello, tuning forks
Scott Solter: engineer, live processing
Mixed at The Tiny Telephone, September 7, 2005
Mastered by Steve Berson at Total Sonic Media

Design+Illustration by Kio Griffith
Family photo by Oscar Bailey
Erik Friedlander photo by Emiliano Neri
All other photos by Lee Friedlander
Notes by Erik Friedlander

The titles "Rusting in Honeysuckle" and "A Thousand Unpieced Suns" are taken from Cormac MacCarthy's books Child of God and Blood Meridian.

Many thanks to Scott Solter for his savvy and empathetic ear.
Thanks also to John Darnielle, Kio Griffith, Dick Connette, Michael Greenberg, The Fraenkel Gallery, Bryce Dessner and Alec Bemis.

All compositions by Erik Friedlander (ASCAP)

www.erikfriedlander.com

P & C Skipstone Records

Block Ice & Propane Liner Notes
Every summer my parents would pack us up for months of camping. My father is a photographer, and he’d plan these trips around his work, various teaching jobs and photo shoots, all across the U.S. Our camper was a thin shelled box sitting on top of a 1966 Chevrolet pickup truck. An economy model with a propane gas stove, a sink and a table-- no shower, no fridge. 15 lb. blocks of ice kept the food from rotting. Lukewarm sponge baths from the sink or campground showers did the same for us.
One summer newer RV's appeared on the road-- sleek, silver Airstreams throwing our reflection back at us as they roared past like first class trains. Showers. Refrigerators. Incomprehensible luxury. The era of block ice was drawing to an end, but not for us. Melting cubes swiped from motel ice machines tided us over when we were low.
The stale smell of drowning food. The propane stove my mother was always afraid would leak catastrophically. The hours my sister and I spent reading or counting Mack trucks from the top window. The tongue my father prepared that seemed to gape at us from the roadside picnic table. Cities, campgrounds, parades, outhouses, wild animals, and strange characters suffused in the haze of thousands of hours of highway travel. Writing these pieces put me back in that camper, where time seemed to slow, while outside tiny white signs furiously ticked off the next tenth of a mile.
Many thanks to Scott Solter for his savvy and empathetic ear. Thanks also to John Darnielle, Kio Griffith, Dick Connette, Michael Greenberg, Bryce Dessner and Alec Bemis.

reviews

Please log in to review this album.

  • Road trip
    author: Gareth Sager

    I closed my eyes and felt like I was in that old truck heading down the road, shivers up and down my spine as the sound of this wonderfully different cello music filled my ears! Thank you Eric!!

  • Block Ice and Propane
    author: Ron Beland

    Dreamy cello sound portraits that are evocative and mostly idyllic. Complex yet peaceful. I've never heard the cello used this way before and the cd rewards repeated listening.

  • Smart noodles...
    author: Alan Young

    Was taken by a review so ordered. Am greatly impressed. Reminded me of John Fahey but not so much chimes and sonorities to fix your consciousness. I generally listen to music while putting together meals and/or reading so this music captivated me with it's individual voice talking both to me and to itself. Thank you for the communication, Erik Friedlander!

email

Please log in to email this artist.