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MALDOROR
Solo Cello Improvisations by Erik Friedlander
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 Bréton wrote that the Comte de Lautréamont’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. Lautréamont’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. |
