BLOCK ICE & PROPANE
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 Block Ice & Propane, 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 filmmaker Bill Morrison (Decasia).
Inspired by American roots music and Friedlander's own history as a young guitar player, Block Ice & Propane features a kind of back porch pizzicato and rich evocative bowed landscapes--a new kind of cello music. The mix of stories, images, music and films create a multi-dimensional performance that is both a celebration of the family camping trip, an archetype of American life, and a poignant memoir of a child making sense of the hundreds of hours and the hundreds of miles traveled each year.
PRESS
"Block Ice & Propane, then, is a boy's folk anthem-- sweet, naïve, intrigued-- gathered and transformed through a virtuoso's adult memory." --Pitchfork
"There's a breathtaking lyricism at work in these new tunes, but it's infused with an almost breezy touch: like swirling dust in beams of light.." -John Darnielle
"..a magnificent new solo album.." -The New Yorker
"If there's a venerable tradition of American road films, Block Ice & Propane belongs in the associated list of great road albums." (John Corbett, DOWNBEAT)
"a supple disc with as much folksy strumming as sumptuous bowing." --TimeOUT NY
"..the avant cello album of the summer." (Ben Sisario, NYTimes)