"Erik Friedlander can do things with a cello that
should have a reasonable listener fearing for her
life," says PitchforkMedia.com,
"Rostropovich one second and Rottweiler the next." A
virtuosic veteran of NYC's downtown scene, Friedlander
has backed John Zorn, Laurie Anderson and Courtney
Love. New York's Erik Friedlander is a unique cellist
whose work blurs genre borders. He is a composer and an
improviser, a classical musician and a jazzbo. The LA
Times put it best when they wrote, "Friedlander's
performance clearly positions him as the first
potential star performer on his instrument." Erik grew
up in a home filled with art and music. He is the son
of Lee Friedlander, an art photographer known by
musicians and jazz aficionados for the cover
photographs he took for Atlantic Records. His passion
for r&b and jazz greatly influenced Erik, whose
earliest memories are of a household filled with the
sounds of his father's subjects--Ray Charles, Aretha
Franklin, McCoy Tyner, Ornette Coleman, and John
Coltrane. Erik started playing guitar at age 6 and
added cello two years later. ...more
