This double album finds cellist Erik Frielander showing two sides of his musical worldview. The first disc, Dirty Boxing has him in the companyof Uri Caine/p, Mark Helias/b and Ches Smith/dr for a collection of post bop originals. The team gets rocish on “D’Arce “ while chamber moods are picked and plucked out for “Shrimping”. “Foot Stomp” and “Sprawl” have intricate, intense and exciting lines and diretions, while Caine gets a space for soling on “Kimura”. Think of Pentangle meeting with ESP-era Miles.
For Floating City, Friedlander teams with the soft voice os Sara Serpa, Wendy Eisenberg/g and Mark Helias/b for a five part “Interstitial” suite that has pastoral and ethereal harmonies and moods. Dots and dashes bounce around on “Interstitial” and hints of Bartok meld with European folk on “V”. Chalk pastels of sound.