Erik Friedlander
Alchemy
Skipstone Records
By George W. Harris

Erik Friedlander has lent his talents to a large collection of artists that veer over to the avant-garde school; Dave Douglas, Marty Ehrlich and John Zorn to name just a few. He’s put out a number of discs on his own, and on his latest, he’s essentially ON his own, as he supplies just about all of the instrumentation here. Keyboards, Mandolin, cello, guitar and the ubiquitous “programming” are all supplied by the leader, while Teho Teardo and Scott Solter supply added keyboards, “processing” and engineer skills. The music ranges from ethereal chamber work that has hints of eerie and impending doom to out and out slash and burn cacophony, with the arrangements varying from solo cello to Bartok-like chamber material. Music that goes outside-in and a step out again.