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"Taking Trips To America" Solo Show - Information Mini-Site

Music by Erik Friedlander
Images by Lee & Maria Friedlander
Films by Bill Morrison

Cellist Erik Friedlander draws on his experiences as a child traveling across the United States with his family during the 1960's and 70's to create Taking Trips To America, an engaging solo performance that brings together Erik's rich, Americana-inspired cello music, his own stories from now-distant road trips, images taken by his father, the photographer Lee Friedlander, and haunting road films contributed by film maker Bill Morrison (Decasia.).

Videos, Photos, MP3's, Rider & booking info.

link: http://erikfriedlander.com/epksolo/takingtrips.htm

Great Albums You May Have Missed: Erik Friedlander's Block Ice & Propane (2007) by Andy Wagstaff, Central Collection Development February 11, 2011

"As I listen to Block Ice & Propane, I recall the other possible uniform title I considered for this blog thread: “Prone to Hyperbole”; because this collection of songs may be the most evocative set of music the universe has ever heard! It throws us in the back of a camper for a cross-country camping trip, circa 1960 or '70-something; drives us down the backroads of America; and all we have to do is just notice, every so often, our impressions along the way. If you've ever taken such a trip, or I imagine even a trip down any backroad in the world, and felt the sheer ruralness, the emptiness of it; this collection may very well trigger a slowly-unfolding, deep memory fountain from your forgotten and innocent youth, eventually bubbling over into your heart, full of naïve childhood memories that helped to color who you are today. And as prone to hyperbole as I may be, you just have to check this one out. See if I'm right in that it takes you where it promises to." [read more]

"Night White" - "Road Weary & King Rig"

SNL spoofed the Errol Morris iPhone ads my music appeared on. Check it out!

John Corbett's 4 star review:
"If there's a venerable tradition of American road films, Block Ice & Propane belongs in the associated list of great road albums." [read more]

"Black Ice and Propane, Erik Friedlander (Skipstone)—Listening to the first track, the muscular “King Rig,” you think that you’re hearing a very unusual acoustic guitar sound. It may be a few tracks later, or maybe only when you read the liner notes, that you realize that it’s a cello being plucked and hammered by a very unusual virtuoso. This concept solo album is about the trips Friedlander took as a kid with his parents in a cramped trailer towed along the open roads of the west. Without vocals, he effectively conveys the landscapes, the campsites, the thrills and the boredom of such a journey on an album that is, to say the least, entirely unexpected."

Rock & Rap Confidential is the monthly newsletter edited by Grammy-winning writer Dave Marsh.

I got up early to go on Fox Business Network. Check it out:

Last July, as part of a mini-tour supporting the release of Block Ice & Propane I played at The Lily Pad, a small club in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A friend of mine, cellist Josh Gordon, came to the show and brought along his friend, filmmaker, Errol Morris who enjoyed the music and bought a copy of the CD. As it happens, Morris ended up working on a new series of spots for the Apple iPhone and he found that my piece, "Yakima", worked well with the stylish testimonial, real-person-on-the-street work he created.
See The New Ads: iPhone ads

FIND YAKIMA FOR DOWNLOAD

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"Almost everyone has at least a few pictures documenting the family vacations they took growing up, but not everyone’s childhood memories were preserved by a renowned photographer. So it makes sense that images from the camping trips cello ace Erik Friedlander took with his father, Museum of Modern Art-approved artist Lee Friedlander, gradually snuck into his subconscious and, eventually, his latest solo album, Block Ice & Propane." [click on pic to read whole doc..]

"Improvisor/composer Erik Friedlander simply owns his instrument (that instrument being the cello). A stunning musician whose talent blurs genres, Friedlanders often plays with avant-garde legends like John Zorn and Laurie Anderson, but can also be found on stage with more indie-friendly acts including The Mountain Goats (not only did he open for them on their most recent tour, but he also collaborated on songs during their set) and John Vanderslice. Plugging in, playing, and capturing tones you just won't hear anywhere else, Friedlander is that one-of-a-kind New York musician that can bridge the gap between the old school and the new school. He is jazz. He is rock. He is classical. He is all of these things, and he is none of these things."

"..Friedlander’s live performance resonated a depth and warmness, which, blended with his long-honed and heralded technical prowess, kept the crowd in awe for the entire set. [ read more]"

"..He played some tunes from his latest CD, BLOCK ICE AND PROPANE, and they knocked me out. [ read more]"

"John Darnielle/Courtney Love/Laurie Anderson collaborator Erik Friedlander performed immediately afterwards on the same stage with nothing more than a cello..[ read more]"

"..as a jazz cellist, you may not think you’ve heard Friedlander but you’ve heard this dude and probably didn’t know it, I would bet. He’s been all over the music industry backing artists from Dave Douglas and John Zorn to Alanis Morissette and Joss Stone. [read more]"

"..Friedlander’s impressive and vast technical skill lets him transform the cello into an instrument that’s played in many cases like a guitar, where rather than single or double-note pizzicato, he actually finger-picks and strums. [ read more]"

"Airstream Envy" jolts open with a shriek of pure panic. Erik Friedlander's bow grates across the strings of his cello, wrenching notes into a stunted, disdainful exclamation. Imagine Friedlander-- now one of the world's top cellists with a Rolodex of collaborators from John Zorn and Laurie Anderson to John Darnielle and Courtney Love-- as a boy from New York's hinterlands, maybe 14 or 15 years old, out West in an RV sitting atop a 1966 Chevrolet pick-up truck. [ read more]

I am putting together a new solo show using images from the family trips that inspired many of the song titles on Block Ice & Propane. I dug through boxes of photos to rescue a few that are now online and ready for viewing. Check out the Family Archives!

Months before I went into the studio to record Block Ice I sent my friend Teho Teardo some of my home studio versions. Teho took "Rushmore" and created this magic remix: Rushmore (remixed by Teho Teardo)

Hear my most recent interview with Kurt Andersen and PRI's Studio360: Listen! We talked about being 'on the road' and they put me to work improvising after hearing a segment from the Kerouac novel.

I hopped the Amtrak to DC for a nice chat with Jacki Lyden of NPR's All Things Considered. It aired Saturday, August 4 on your local stations. Listen Now!

You'll find MP3 samples, pics, and video at the VIRB/erikfriedlander site.

Pitchfork
New York Times
Boston Phoenix
Nat'l Geographic
TimeOUT Chicago
Variety
TimeOut NY
The Boston Globe
Jambase.com
New York Sun - Steven Dollar Writes
Brian Heater for The New York PRESS
HARP MAGAZINE
PASTE MAGAZINE
The New Yorker
Jazz News
ZWire.Com
Over The Cliff, Onto The Rocks (Blog)

For all concerts check my home page.

For booking information contact Erik Friedlander at: ef2010"at"erikfriedlanderDOTcom

As the ideas for Block Ice & Propane began to take shape, I realized that I was writing a plain-spoken, American sort of music. Memories of cross-country camping trips my family took every summer started filtering back to me...[read more]

More to come...[back]