Album Notes

IN THE SHADE OF ANGELS
New compositions for cello alone and with other instruments. Recorded in a stone church in Vermont, IN THE SHADE OF ANGELS, explores the full range of Friesen's original music - inventive improv's, dark rhapsodies, swinging pizzicato, songful melodies, pulsing rhythm - and includes a captivating duet with the song of a humpback whale. Guest musicians include Tim Ray from Lyle Lovett's band adding sparkle and sweep on piano; Jamey Haddad, percussionist with Paul Simon, in a duet for handdrum and cello; and Jody Elff on electric guitars and laptop.

EUGENE FRIESEN
is the Grammy Award-winning cellist of the Paul Winter Consort whose ground-breaking style, innovative technique and poetic improvising have moved audiences internationally. Eugene's love of nature, the world of music, children, and spontaneity, is manifested in his joyful playing while revealing new facets of the cello.

A graduate of the Yale School of Music where he studied with Brazilian cellist Aldo Parisot, Eugene has forged a personal style melding his love for Brazilian and African music, rock, jazz and folk. In 1995 Eugene was awarded a Grammy for the Paul Winter Consort album "Spanish Angel." He has also worked and recorded with such diverse artists as Dave Brubeck, Toots Thielemans, Betty Buckley, Will Ackerman, Philip Aaberg, Darol Anger and Dream Theater.

Eugene is an artist-in-residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, and is on the faculty of the Berklee College of Music in Boston.