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Radio ›› À un moment donné
À un moment donné
roofless (2002), 5m32s [excerpt]
Track 1 from À un moment donné
CD: Ambiances Magnétiques (2002) AM 103
1 June 2007
By BLG in Downtown Music Gallery (USA), June 1, 2007

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“furiously original, studded with frenzied, fleeting flashes.”

On this disc soloist Lori Freedman presents thirteen new improvised pieces for soprano and bass clarinets that were recorded at Radio-Canada’s Studio 12 in the spring of 2002. Imposing an unbridled rhythm on her clarinets, this alchemist-musician invites us into a surprising world in which the music is allowed to develop on its own, vibrant and captivating. Propelling, in the fervor of the moment - a very exact moment - music that abounds in textures both complex and refined, she constructs a non-linear sound universe that is very close to the bizarre revelations traveled in dreams, furiously original, studded with frenzied, fleeting flashes.

blogue@press-3328 press@3328
21 March 2003
By Christian Carey in Splendid E-Zine (USA), March 21, 2003

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“… For author and performer alike, this is some of the most exposed and naked music to present to the public-it is like walking the tightrope without a net beneath you… Many of the works seems to have some affinity for the pointillistic and angular characteristics of avant-garde classical pieces like Stockhauzen’s Amour. Others, like the bass clarinet solo Slappyspazzgruv, are imposing an almost Eric Dolphy-esque grandeur, squalling and shredding a high melodic line almost to the point of disintegration. Freedman’s most distinguishing musical characteristic is her tendency to select a small cell of pitches as a central part of each piece (see Ab). Rather than dealing with them in an ostinato/minimalist approach, she tends to use these fragments as a springboard for musical development, transforming seemingly limited pitch materials through transposition, inversion, registral displacement, and timbral effects such as microtones, rasps, and glissandi. From an intentionally minimal palate of material, Freedman creates a maximal amount of variety and invention.”

One of the most difficult tasks a composer can set for himself is to construct a solo work for a melodic, single line instrument. There are no chords and harmony to hide behind; there are no ensemble collaborators to engage in contrapuntal dialogue. The composer must endeavor to hold the listener’s interest with naught but the development of a single melodic line. For author and performer alike, this is some of the most exposed and naked music to present to the public — it is like walking the tightrope without a net beneath you. For an improviser like Lori Freedman, this must be even more so the case — not only is she up there alone, but she’s also trying to extemporize.

The Canadian clarinettist presents 13 improvised pieces here. Many of the works seem to have some affinity for the pointillistic and angular characteristics of avant-garde classical pieces like Stockhausen’s Amour (a 1976 set of pieces for solo clarinet). Others, like the bass clarinet solo Slappyspazzgruv, are imposing in an almost Eric Dolphy-esque grandeur, squalling and shredding a high melodic line almost to the point of disintegration. Freedman’s most distinguishing musical characteristic is her tendency to select a small cell of pitches as a central part of each piece (see ab). Rather than dealing with them in an ostinato/minimalist approach, she tends to use these fragments as a springboard for musical development, transforming seemingly limited pitch materials through transposition, inversion, registral displacement, and timbral effects such as microtones, rasps, and glissandi (the bending of pitches). From a minimal palette of material, Freedman creates a maximal amount of variety and invention.

blogue@press-2214 press@2214
3 March 2003
By Tom Schulte in WomanRock (USA), March 3, 2003

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Lori Freedman’s clarinets soar and scream with seagull-like insistence on this solo album of avian improvisation from the soprano clarinet and sonorous answers from the deep, bass clarinet. Lori is a master of both instruments and needs no other assistance in creating a fascinating, instrumental album of interest to fans of free jazz.

blogue@press-2419 press@2419
1 March 2003
By Luc Bouquet in ImproJazz #93 (France), March 1, 2003

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Freedman lance des fusées, colères gardées et enfouies, qui n’auront d’autre choix que de surgir tôt ou tard.”

Il y a très souvent, dans ce solo de clarinettes de Lori Freedman, un moment d’extinction, un moment où le souffle se déporte dans un quasi silence avant que ne se ranime la convulsion. Freedman lance des fusées, colères gardées et enfouies, qui n’auront d’autre choix que de surgir tôt ou tard. J’imagine Freedman exigeante, je l’entends trépigner (2B2), je l’imagine pliée en deux, offerte corps et âme à la clarinette. La clarinette, parlons-en; comment lui inventer un autre espace, bousculer sa grâce naturelle? Lori Freedrnan l’a trés bien compris, qui d’une soudaine douceur caressante (Mais où est donc car ni or) en passant par les spasmes délurés de Pootwear For a Fish et autres coups de bec bien sentis de Slappyspazzgruy, lui cherche un avenir, un sentier moins balisé. Parfois la voix de Lori s’en mêle (All Good Children), parfois ce sont les microtonalités de Joe Maneri que la clarinettiste évoque (Sky Pool, Uglybeautétu), mais toujours, imperturbable, la musicienne poursuit sa course. Celle-ci est belle, cabossée, rigoureuse, exigeante. Je ne m’en lasse décidément pas.

blogue@press-2482 press@2482
9 January 2003
By Réjean Beaucage in Voir (Québec), January 9, 2003

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“Elle apparait ici complètement débridée, laissant libre cours à son talent et à son imagination.”

Lâchée lousse, littéralement. C’est vraiment l’image qui vient en tête en écoutant ce premier enregistrement de Lori Freedman chez Ambiances Magnétiques. Le disque démarre en trombe avec Roofless, une oeuvre très intense durant laquelle la clarinettiste déchaînée évoque le jeu hachuré de stridences d’un John Zorn des grands soirs. À la clarinette basse ou à la clarinette en si bémol, la compositrice explore sans relâche les zones les moins convenues de la palette sonore disponible. la Torontoise maintenant établie à Montréal a connu la discipline des orchestres symphoniques, recevant même les éloges de John Corigliano après avoir interprété son Concerto pour clarinette. Elle apparait ici complètement débridée, laissant libre cours à son talent et à son imagination. Parce qu’il faut bien que ça sorte, à un moment donné.

blogue@press-2223 press@2223
1 January 2003
By Gabriel Bélanger in SOCAN, Paroles & Musique (Canada), January 1, 2003

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“It speaks to you; after the disc stops spinning you feel the need to grab an instrument and answer.”

Compositrice de talent, Lori Freedman a travaillé avec de nombreux musiciens ainsi que pour des productions théâtrales et au cinéma. Clarinettiste virtuose, elle est d’une créativité sans cesse renouvelée et nous présente ici treize nouvelles pièces improvisées. Les différentes textures sonores que l’on retrouve tout au long de cet album fascinant nous donnent l’impression qu’il met en vedette plusieurs interprètes alors qu’elle est bel et bien seule. Profondément original.

blogue@press-3246 press@3246

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