Gideon Freudmann
CelloBop
Review of Rain Monsters (Octagon): Former Valley resident Gideon Freudmann has long specialized in what he calls "cello bop," a looping, adventurous and electrified form of cello music. He's unafraid to cross any genre line he feels like, and guitar effects like distortion or wah sometimes add a layer of modernity and rock abandon. On "Cello Shots," he plays with monstrous fuzz, alternating those passages with pleasant, sitar-fueled folk/psychedelia. Here Freudmann's introspective explorations are fleshed out by a full band, and the additional players offer him a wider palette by far, allowing him a broad landscape through which to gallop (and loop and bow). Freudmann's sound is one of a kind, somewhere between Baroque, minimalism and organic electronica. It's a pleasure to trip through the unexpected turns, always sophisticated in their musicianship and poignant in their contours. - James Heflin
"Taking a modern artist's approach to the four-stringed instrument, Gideon Freudmann has brought the cello to a new realm. His latest album is a dreamy, cinematic tour-de-force!"
- The Boston Globe
"Freudmann sounds like nothing less than a cutting-edge, avant-garde musician, whose genre-bending exploits combine aspects of performance art, new-classical, psychedelia and comedy, a sort of cross between Kronos Quartet and Leo Kottke." - Berkshire Eagle
"His songs should find favor with fans of new age, jazz, classical and blues riffs. He is amazingly adept at creating sonic moods in the ethereal school. Evocative. Stirring. And simply put, a must-get for those who treasure the pleasure of certified tonal skill." - Soundations Music Reviews
"Gideon Freudmann is a talented, experimental cellist that got the ear of producers from NPR's All Thing's Considered. There is sense of humor, a spirit of eclectic adventure and mastery of classic and jazz forms in these pieces. This fusion of talent and experiment makes for a peerless and unforgettable collection of gems." - Perfect Sound Forever
"Gideon is sharp, witty, prolific, talented... A cross between Woody Allen, Frank Zappa, and a touch of Peter Schikele" - Maine Public Radio
"By turns dark, moody, pensive playful, soothing and raucous, Hologram Crackers is a fascinating listening experience. It moves fluidly among the worlds of classical, jazz, pop and rock, and various fusions of all these." - Folk-Tales.com
"His originals are great examples of a growing trend towards combining classical, jazz, folk and rock influences. It dissolves boundaries and infuses the music with a dream-like sense of possibility; the music might roam anywhere at any time. He has the hard-to-come-by, wide-ranging mastery necessary to pull off such a feat... Dissolves boundaries and infuses the music with a dream-like sense of possibility" - The Valley Advocate
"From first note to (deep breath) last, this CD is a treasure. Chock full of beautiful, infectious melodies and jaw-dropping musicianship, it never grows tiresome. If I had to choose just one CD to listen to for the rest of my life, it would be this one.
A Masterpiece" - Margaret Nelson on BROQUE: Ghost in the Attic
"No instrument is as mellow as the cello, and cellist/composer Gideon Freudmann's Ukrainian Pajama Party would be the perfect soundtrack for an October afternoon, sipping herb tea in your fez and velvet smoking jacket and poring over R. Crumb comics."
-Michael Stevens, PopMatters
The melodies were memorable, totally infectious, swirling with a psychedelic vertigo
"17 tracks of twisted, madcap songs, slightly along the lines of Syd Barrett or Robyn Hitchcock, if they had ever tripped out on cello, with a little Dan Hicks humor for sanity. The melodies were memorable, totally infectious, swirling with a psychedelic vertigo and an occasional Beatlesque moment." - Dirty Linen
"Using a relatively small number of basic effects, we have a disc of surprising depth and not-so-surprising beauty. Freudmann has put together one of the most interesting and enjoyable neo-classical discs I've heard in some time. - CDSpectrum.com
"Freudmann's 17 creations is much like pondering about art, identifying objects in the clouds or even interpreting surreal dreams. Often there's a feeling of motion as if you are being transported to an unknown destination. " - Dirty Linen
"Truly a musical innovator, cellist Gideon Freudmann is a musician with a tremendously creative, genre-bending outlook toward his compositions... Part classical, part Beatle-esque pop, part pickin' and grinnin'."
- The Valley Advocate
"Gideon Freudmann is simply, complexly and utterly unique. Freudmann's eclectic musical tastes range across the human repertory, blue grass to classical to jazz to funk to rap to folk to infinity and back, sometimes all within the course of a single song. Freudmann can take the traditional and deliver it straight up, or turn it on its head and inside out until you hardly recognize it any more." - Pete Nelson
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