Open the Light

There is something more that shines through all that we do and feel. Deliciously polyphonic and full of healing love, "Open the Light" is a gift made of gifts. Thank you so much to Alexander Bernat​, who has taught me and so many others about power of kindness and the joy of giving. Mad Dog Friedman on oak flute and Theremini. Alexander Bernat on Celtic harp.

Songs for Our Mother

Bird Sings

Frog Sings

Beach Walks

Butterfly Flutters By

Even Moss Sings

Night Song

Cloud Song

Rain Dance

River Ditty

Waiting for Now

432

This not a poem.

It is the track list for

my new CD,
Songs for Our Mother.

This album explores the common textures between nature and the spontaneous music of indigenous instruments. Featuring eleven spontaneous compositions for Native American flute and kalimba enhanced with Theremini and computer generated soundscapes, these tracks utilize an interesting blend of what on first glance may appear as incongruous elements to create an amazing interweaving of lush sonic layers in celebration of the connection between Mother Earth and human artifice.   Please enjoy a full listen for free and let me know what you think. If you would like to add this music to your own collection, you may buy the digital release for $15 or join my subscription community (for $15/ year) to receive unlimited  access to over 70 tracks of my psychoactive music. 

Alone Is My Home (Leave Me Alone) by Mad Dog Friedman & Bruce Deleplain

Alone Is My Home (Leave Me Alone) by Mad Dog Friedman & Bruce Deleplain is a song written to raise awareness about Boulder's City Council recent actions to eradicate the homeless presence in downtown Boulder. Any of us are but one or two tragic life events from needing each others' help. Please use this thread to discuss more than just the music here. This is about being human and taking care of each other.

Listen to a live version of this song performed by Papa Juke on KGNU's Kabaret Show You may use this link (www.reverbnation.com/mdfriedman/song/24330993-alone-is-my-home-leave-me) or the player below:




or watch the YouTube version performed by Mad Dog Friedman with Jenn Cleary & Jay Stott on Aug. 11, 2015, at the Wildflower Pavilion, Planet Bluegrass, in Lyons, Colorado.

For more information or to contact Mad Dog, please go to www.maddogharp.com.

Hide & Seek

It took over a month for Isatella & the Master of the Silver Catfish to emerge from their boreal surroundings so I am calling this one "Hide & Seek." Perhaps my most whimsical watercolor yet...

Symphony of the Heart

Just released (as in 5 minutes ago) my most ambitious solo Theremini project to date: the Symphony of the Heart, 37 minutes of spontaneous compositions in six movements. For me it is next to miraculous to be able to paint these rich polyphonic landscapes in a series of single solo recording sessions simply by waving my arms around. Thank you for all your support and encouragement. Sometimes I wonder about myself.
https://maddogfriedman.bandcamp.com/album/symphony-of-the-heart

Cranial Sacred

Just finished the new Theremini CD. There is something going on when I listen to or make this music. Hard to describe, but I like the sensation and where it leads me. Please let me know what you think.

https://maddogfriedman.bandcamp.com/album/cranial-sacred

Turnings #visualsoundscapes

"Turnings"   Almost done now with Cranial Sacred. Stay tuned for more Visual Soundscapes from the CD.  There is something going on here.

Entropy, a new Theremini visual soundscape

My newest Theremini  visual soundscape. Hot off the hard drive. Is this the beginning of a new CD? What does Cranial Sacred mean anyway? Why do I keep doing this? #visualsoundscape, #CranialSacred

Listen to more at https://maddogfriedman.bandcamp.com/album/cranial-sacred

Drones for Peace Launch

It's done. 17 tracks and over an hour of pure Theremini bliss. Not like anything I have ever done.  Not sure who might like this. Not sure why I am releasing this. Ultimately I feel if you resonate with it, I would be be happy to give it to you, it is all about connection and healing, so just message me on Facebook at facebook.com/maddogharp and I will send you a free download code.
 


https://maddogfriedman.bandcamp.com/album/drones-for-peace

Particular Light - Visual Sound Art

Visual Sound Art Featuring Mad Dog Friedman on Theremini & the Cyborg Demon Choir

 "Particular Light" is a bonus track of Mad Dog's Drones for Peace album:  https://maddogfriedman.bandcamp.com/album/drones-for-peace

Hand in the Machine Video

My hand is deep in the machine on this one, not caught there, but flapping around like a fish, wiggling off the hook, I feel I might break free!

Eye Land

Sometimes I think about this very old alien Muppet trapped on a tropical island playing an ethereal accordion. Sometimes I can't get his haunting music out of my head. Is it a self-portrait? Maybe, but not mine. I mean it is the nature of art to blur reflection and introspection. It is at the heart of human nature to define your own reality. All art is a self-portrait in one way or another.

 

The Whole (or maybe The Bowl)

I wanted to make my Theremini into an an electronic singing bowl that shimmered with harmonics and dripped with drone. My pedal board along with its particle synthesizer and EH Ravish Sitar pedal figure predominately in this ruse. from Hand in the Machine, released 22 November 2014 All tracks are single take improvisations. Mad Dog Friedman - Theremini The Whole, by Mad Dog Friedman from the album Hand in the Machine https://maddogfriedman.bandcamp.com/track/the-whole

Open Mined

"Open Mined," digital art by M. D. Friedman

The Whole

A taste of the last tune from my new live solo Theremin CD, Hand in the Machine. (Download at maddogfriedman.bandcamp.com.)  I wanted to try and make my Theremini into an an electronic singing bowl that shimmered with harmonics and dripped with drone.  My pedal board along with its Electro-Harmonix Superego and  Ravish Sitar pedals figure predominately in this ruse.  I finally got my "AIR HARP" spaceship to take me where I want to go. Now I am not sure if I will ever be able to find my way back again. 

The Shaman Meets the Alien

The Shaman & the Alien
Tells the story of their legendary first meeting in the Fall of 1858 near what is now Pilar, New Mexico.

Burgundy Wink

"Burgundy Wink," digital art by M. D. Friedman

A Drinking Song

BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS 

Wine comes in at the mouth

And love comes in at the eye;

That’s all we shall know for truth

Before we grow old and die.

I lift the glass to my mouth,

I look at you, and I sigh.

Dogged

This one is called "Dogged".  No photographs were harmed in the process of making this piece.

If you are enjoying my art postings and would like to see them as I make them, please "like" my artist page on FaceBook at www.facebook.com/mdfriedmansart.

Which Came First

The age-old question finally answered through the magic of digital painting.

He Knew

Something a little different from by digital paint brush.  I hope you like it.  More at www.mdfriedman.com.

Bird's Eye View

My latest digital painting.  The pixels are still wet.

It's called "Bird's Eye View."

It's about magical healing.

More at www.americanframe.com/artist/mark-friedman.aspx

Annie's Song

This is my first flute recording written to help with transitioning from my dear cousin Annie's death at the early age of 60.

Algal Bloom, a Digital Painting by M. D. Friedman

The inspiration for this piece came from being locked into an eye to eye connection with an alpha frog in a nearby wetlands. I was enjoying the connection, feeling his wildness, as we somehow morphed together in a primordial forest, very peaceful yet somehow always underneath what I normally perceive as the wetlands...

More at www.mdfriedman.com.

acrophobia (on a painting by Pat Orban)

acrophobia

rain bites skin

chills bones

among warm speckled rays

thunder hems & haws    clears its throat of sky

lilac whiffs with languid wind    and that smell

when rain first tames the dust brings me

to who I am (in this cage of dying skin)

the old man rambled    can’t work in the lightening

I had to agree    it was a yellow afternoon

and there is no place better to stand

than where your feet meet the ground

I wouldn’t go up there either

not if I had a say

not now        probably never

I Shot the Serif (on a painting by Pat Orban)

I Shot the Serif

these bricks

I labor to layer

like sturdy scars

imprison me

as certainly as

the runaway train

roaring through my brain

jumps the track of reason

sharp barb lurks in the dark

the point is silence

I move between the taste

of rust and blood

hook slides from jaw

with the simplicity of gravity

I swish free smoothly slipping

beneath the quivered surface

burnt dusk oozes from the eye of night

cloistered with pain and wormy delusion

the dangling trap drifts beyond

I forage shimmering in the infinite dawn

ice, an experimental video

M. D. Friedman added his original Theremin composition , Amusement Park Accident to the sound track of his Ice dance screen scape video with significant synergistic effects to make this enjoyable experimental video a stand alone experience on July 9, 2013.

The Ice video was conceived as the projected video backdrop for Lines, a live, multidimensional performance of original poetry, music and dance by M. D. Friedman, Roseanna Frechette & Mila Popovich. The performance was a featured at the 25th Annual Poetry Rodeo on April 19, 2014, at the Mercury Cafe in Denver, Colorado.

You may download the spontaneous theremin composition, Amusement Park Accident, at http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=628389&songID=12719119&showPlayer=true

You may download Hand in the Machine, an entire album of M. D.'s spontaneous theremin compositions, at http://maddogfriedman.bandcamp.com/album/hand-in-the-machine

Please see http://www.mdfriedman.com  to keep up with M. D. Friedman's latest creative projects.

universal

seed lit grass

nod in

eager waves

 

bend in

wind

now and again

 

same breath

pulses through

each of us

 

no matter

how old

or alone

Red Birds and Pink Elephant

Digital Painting by M. D. Friedman

full gallery of digital art work at http://mdfriedman.com/galleries/DigArtGal/index.html

please see www.mdfriedman.com for more of everything

---

everyday

everyday we risk

being more fully alive

another flower blooms

Hand in the Machine (Oh Why Oh Why Oh Why?)

My hand is deep in the machine on this one, not caught there, but flapping around like a fish, and with each wiggle to try to get off the hook, I feel like I might break free!

If the above player does not work for you, try this direct link:
http://www.reverbnation.com/mdfriedman/song/18167043-hand-in-the-machine

Fixing the Faucet

This is the latest taste of my peculiar illness. This is live, solo Theremin therapy. I hope you find some relief in this as well.

 

If the above player does not work for you, try this direct link: http://www.reverbnation.com/mdfriedman/song/18133631-fixing-the-faucet

Electrolysis of Hairy Fodder

"Electrolysis of Hairy Fodder" is the latest bit of insanity from the Mojo Medicine Show and is yours for the taking. The magic of Mad Dog's aleatory Theremin and the Mojo Man's iPad Synthesizer blends seamlessly in this hair raising sound scape.  Enjoy!

I Forgot What I Was Saying

Vintage, Analog, Improvisational, Experimental, Aleatory 'Lectronica Featuring Mad Dog Friedman on Theremin created, recorded and uploaded on July 1, 2013.
In case your player isn't playing try this direct link: www.reverbnation.com/mdfriedman/song/17841083-i-forgot-what-i-was-saying

Chewing the Cud on Blueberry Hill

Full electronica improvisational set on June 24th, 2013 in Dragon Studios composed and performed in the moment by Mojo Medicine Show. Featuring Dan "The Mojo Man" Crecco on percussion, electric washboard and iPad synth and Mad Dog Friedman on aleatory Theremin. No midis or loops were used in the production of this experimental sound-scape. The moment knows not how to make mistakes.

(If the music player does not show up on your browser or does not work try this direct link:
https://soundcloud.com/md-friedman/chewing-the-cud-on-blueberry)

Please let me know what you think.  We were trying out some new effects today!




The Mojo Medicine Show is an unique blues duo that blends the jug juice of 1930's juke band music with the electric kool-aid jams of the 1960's.
www.mojomedicineshow.com

The original Mojo Medicine Show toured the western slopes of Colorado in the summer of 1976. This ragged and hairy troupe of musicians, Gypsy fortune tellers and belly dancers performed their way into the hearts of many a mountain town. It is in this tradition of Colorado’s own home grown, psychedelic, back porch blues that the Mojo Medicine founder, Mad Dog Friedman, decided to create a unique blues duo that captures the spirit of those amazing times. This new incarnation of the Mojo Medicine Show features Mad Dog Friedman on harp, vocals and Theremin and Dan Crecco on washboard, percussion and iPad synth. The modern Mojo Medicine Show puts down the real deal, hippy trippy blues seldom heard in this day and age. From their contemporary, simple, heartfelt, rural-rooted blues to their vintage, analog, improvisational, experimental, aleatory 'lectronica, the Mojo Medicine Show offers a unique alternative to today's throwback, retro-folk and refracted root music scene.

Strange Fruit Villanelle

(April 5, 1968, Alton Senior High School)

America needed to watch its back.

When ignorance swelled like fruit on hatred’s tree,

My best friend in high school was black.

America feasted on this loathsome crap,

When hopeful King was gunned down from his dream,

America needed to watch its back.

I’ll recall how whites that day in school talked smack,

How bigots blindly hurled hateful obscenities.

My best friend in high school was black.

Blacks marched out, whites threw rocks to pelt the pack,

Cops beat back blacks blue and red; white kids cheered in glee.

America needed to watch its back.

Alton broke me on its racist rack,

Tortured me with its bloody irony.

My best friend in high school was black.

That things now have changed is mostly fact,

Yet so many still yearn to be free.

Those scars and stripes that welt my back,

Sting like the cuts lashed on my friend's back.