Yellowstone
By
Mad
Dog Friedman
Written
by
Steve
Sheppard
Mad
Dog Friedman is a musician who adores creating music that
literally transports the willing listener to the very location of his desired
project, on this brand new release called Yellowstone
we have a huge vista of possible explorations on offer, and as it is very
unlikely that I will ever travel to this glorious place, I can do so
vicariously with the medium of this breath taking beauty of an album.
This huge vista I alluded to in the
aforementioned paragraph, is an album of no less than 24 incredible offerings
for the listener to enjoy, starting with introductory arrangements like September at the Mouth of Chipmunk Creek,
a piece which leads us into the flute based narrative of A Gaggle Of Geese, a thoroughly organic manifestation can be found
here.
There are many stand out tracks on
this album that deserve a mention, such as Geyser
Hill, a locational composition that nature abounds and dances with the
flute, this can also be said for most of the tracks here, such as the stunning
reveries of Bison Rut, I truly never
could imagine the power of a Buffalo until I came face to face with one, then
the longer form narrative of On the
Shores of Peale Island softly takes the listener by the hand and allows
them time in a sanctuary of solitude and introspection.
The listener can traverse through a
myriad of other short form creations that set the scene of nature’s beauty in
such a picturesque and graphic way, I then landed on the composition Wild Snipes and was rooted by the
arrangements mesmeric tones, this in my view was a masterful flute performance
by the artist, and the natural sounds just set the scene with such sublime
ease.
I remember another flute performer in
Deuter creating a track called Wind Through The Trees, whilst neither
composition are in anyway similar, they both achieve the perfect end result by
creating a song redolent of the subject matter, but Mad Dog dares to go one
further in manifesting a track with a raging wind, but one that is perfectly
balanced by his commanding flute performance, and that is not an easy thing to
do.
My Grandfather used to teach me the
difference between a Moorhen and a Coot, but I never thought I would see a
musical arrangement about such a lively and fun bird, especially one that is
gracefully long form at well over 11 minutes in duration, and encapsulating the
energy of the bird perfectly, a composition that indeed concludes the album,
with the piece A Fleet Of Coots.
Yellowstone by Mad Dog Friedman is an organic truly
natural flute based album that gifts its willing listener a vast project of
locational compositions and nature based arrangements to simply bathe ones
senses in. This style of work takes a lot of dedication and determination to
get the right mood and sound, but Mad Dog achieves this with a soft and gentle
approach, as he walks in beauty on this new release Yellowstone.