actuellecd

Solor

Lori Freedman

Freedman, who has collaborated with a who’s who of free improvisation, from trombonist George Lewis to bassist Joëlle Léandre, focuses here on the singular essence of sound, exploring a wide variety of strategies to transform the rawness of being into a glorious tribute to the limits of musical experience while expressing primordial emotions. The New York City Jazz Record, USA

… what really shines through is the humanness behind the sounds as the full range of possible emotions pour out. Musicworks, Canada

In 2016 I made an 11-city North American solo tour called The Virtuosity of Excess, the programme for which was a collection of five scores, two of which were written for the tour: this was music whose scores contained (and still do) the most detailed notation and performance instruction I have ever played. The sixth part of that “monster” was my own composition influenced by and in reaction to such an extreme performance aesthetic. This programme is now available on the cd recording Excess (Collection QB). My main post-tour desire was then to expand on my own creative work, much of which had been already evolving in direct relation to the excess programme, either with it or against it. I spent the next chunk of time developing both on paper and in playing, my own ideas that were born primarily from that all-consuming period of interpretive work.

Solor is a recording of some of my past and current creative work. Heard here are my performances of 5 of my solo compositions, 3 of which were written for the album, plus two improvisations.

  • Canada Council for the Arts

CD (AM 244)

  • Label: Ambiances Magnétiques
  • AM 244
  • 2018
  • UCC 771028124428
  • Total duration: 47:54
  • Sympathique case
  • 125 mm × 125 mm × 5 mm
  • 35 g

On the web

Download (AM 244_NUM)

Notices

About the Works

This is music,
This is my music that is only this music that is “my music.”
This music that is my music is only music that can be nothing else.
Unless it is a chair.

Or a window.

Maybe this music is also a window.
My music, a window.
A windlo.
A loblo and a hiblo. A fulblo and a miblo.
Amiblo.
À Moblo.

[i-19]

Some recommended items
In the press

Review

Steven Loewy, The New York City Jazz Record, March 1, 2020
Freedman, who has collaborated with a who’s who of free improvisation, from trombonist George Lewis to bassist Joëlle Léandre, focuses here on the singular essence of sound, exploring a wide variety of strategies to transform the rawness of being into a glorious tribute to the limits of musical experience while expressing primordial emotions.

Review

Lawrence Joseph, Musicworks, no. 134, September 1, 2019
… what really shines through is the humanness behind the sounds as the full range of possible emotions pour out.

Review

Dolf Mulder, Vital, no. 1191, July 8, 2019

Lori Freedman needs no introduction here. She is an exceptional performer (clarinet), improviser and composer from Canada. Doing some 75 performances a year, hundreds of compositions were premiered by her over the years. Recently we reviewed Freedman’s solo work Excess. Accompanying her 2016-tour, The Virtuosity of Excess, that had Freedman performing compositions by others (mainly) of very detailed notation. After this intensive period, Freedman felt the urge to play and express more of her own music and work. As a consequence, these recordings came about. She is performing here five of her own compositions, plus doing two improvisations, playing B-flat clarinet, bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet and voice. This is once again another very worthwhile solo statement by this extraordinary player; very communicative and vibrant music from a very open-minded musician who wants to investigate every corner, crossing every border. Not afraid of extremes and far-out gestures. Her music is full of contrasts, intro and extravert, raw and polished, changes in speed and dynamics, extended techniques, etc. Always in the function of the musical story, she has to tell.

Her music is full of contrasts, intro and extravert, raw and polished, changes in speed and dynamics, extended techniques, etc. Always in the function of the musical story, she has to tell.