Lori Freedman returns with a beautifully recorded solo album called Bridge. All nuances and colors of her playing can be noticed and fully enjoyed on this crystal clear recording. Freedman leads us through ten works that have her playing bass clarinet, accompanied by Brigitte Poulin (piano) on Flicker (Michel Galante). Some of them are improvisations. Others are compositions by well-known (Scelsi) and not so well-known composers like Monique Jean, Pascal Dusapin, Franco Donatoni, etc. Improvising and playing composed music are equally important for Freedman at this stage of her career and that’s why we find examples of both of them on this record. The contrasts I experienced do not exist between the improvised pieces on the one hand, and the composed ones on the other. Freedman choose very different works to interpret, offering a diverse richness and many contrasts. For instance, Clair (1980) by Donatelli plays intelligently with jazz idiom and is a pleasantly light and positive work. Scelsi’s Maknongen (1976) remains in dark and low sections that are interrupted by almost screaming outbursts. Improvisation and composition are combined in Brief Candles a work composed by Freedman. The closing piece Low Memory 3 by Monique Jean is the only electroacoustic work. The clarinet is surrounded here with sounds that range from ambient-like to very noisy eruptions.

American trombonist, composer, programmer, and teacher George Lewis will be in Montréal on April 19, 2007 at the Tanna Schulich Hall of McGill University to give the lecture Living with Creative Machines. He will also perform in concert with clarinnetist Lori Freedman where their improvisations will be analyzed and processed by a computer system of his design.

You can listen to those artists in intercative settings on Daniel Scheidt’s Action / Réaction (audio clips online).

Theresa Transistor, Christian Bouchard, Yves Daoust, Louis Dufort, Martin Leclerc, Milliseconde topographie, Éric Rocheleau, and Espaces sonores illimités (ESI) (with 6 improvisers et 1 light designer) will successively seduce the public during the opening night show Spatio lumino. This event is part of the Montréal/Nouvelles musiques festival and will take place on Saturday February 24, 2007 at the Société des arts technologiques, in Montréal.

Multireedist Lori Freedman presents Girlfriend, a concert with the Contact contemporary music ensemble, at the Music Gallery (Toronto) on March 8, 2006. Featuring new works, such as Freedman’s Brief Candles, and low memory #3 by Monique Jean.

A 4th edition for the Tentacules concert series, bringing together actuelles, contemporary and electroacoustic musics. Be there February 27, 2003 at La Sala Rossa (Montréal) to hear performances by Lori Freedman, Martin Tétreault, Magali Babin, Bernard Falaise and Adrian Moore.