Maldoror

Downtown Scene cellist Erik Friedlander takes a bold step with an album of completely improvised solo cello pieces. It is an album of stark beauty and haunting poignancy. The premise behind the recording was that the producer would present Friedlander with a piece of 19th century French surrealist poetry, after which Friedlander would immediately improvise based on the impressions he received from the reading. The album was recorded, in its entirety, in about an hour; there were no overdubs.

The moods range from the jarringly dissonant “May It Please Heaven” to the peaceful pizzicato musings of “O Stern Mathematics” to the grungy “I Am Filthy.” The titles may not all seem to immediately reflect the music contained within, but if you listen to the pieces and think of the words, it all begins to make sense.