Joy's Disorder
Cate Friesen
wide-eyed music
1999
10 tracks
I had thought of Cate Freisen primarily as a folk singer. It may be that I had equated the concept Singer/Songwriter with Folk Music. Joy's Disorder has reordered my perception of Cate Freisen. Here is a singer caught on the cusp between Jazz and Blues with a little Pop tugging at her sleeve. And what a wonderful place that seems to be.
Joy's Disorder begins with the radio programmer's anathema: dead air. Then, in succession: three words, silence, four words, silence, three words, silence. The song continues like this, the voice building volume, building intensity, building emotion, moving from almost spoken word to melody, from one voice only to voice with backup singer, to barely perceptible, almost subliminal music in the background. Then the first song, "Blade of Light," ends, seeming never quite to have begun.
The listener has been seduced into the strange world of the Friesens (Cate and Patrick, but not related). Or perhaps another, more conservative (could we say "less artsy" here), listener has wandered off confused.
It's hard to tell whether or not what comes next is part of the second song. It's just noise, more than anything else the musical equivalent of a huge belch. "Ma's Rose" itself is a pretty straightforward jazz piece made artsy by the inclusion of vocals by "backup poet" Patrick Friesen. Notwithstanding the inclusion of the poet's voice in the recording, the song reflects less Leonard Cohen than the artsy end of the jazz spectrum.
For five of the songs on this release Cate Friesen set music to the words of Canadian poet Patrick Friesen. Friesen herself is a fine poet and lyricist so, while including another's words is an interesting exercise, it isn't necessary and could be seen as detrimental to the work over all. The problem isn't with Patrick Friesen's poetry. Friesen's poems create concise images that evoke vivid images of moments in time. His words set to her music seem to work too. However, there is an edge to Cate Freisen's singing of these collaborations which is not there when she sings songs wholly written by her. The sense is almost as though she were uncomfortable singing the words of another. Perhaps as she lives with these songs, she will become more at ease with them.
This is perhaps a small point, but Friesen tends not to sing the lyric as printed in the liner notes, changing words and sometimes entire lines as she goes along. It's okay. The written words work. The sung words work. Still, the reader/listener longs for consistency.
Worth special note is "Late in the Evening," a quiet, beautiful ballad Freisen sings with Ron Sexsmith. In both lyrics and melody, this is an exceptional song. Of all the songs on this release, "Late in the Evening" is the one that most deserves to be categorized as folk music. It has the sound of those lovely popular folk ballads we heard so often thirty or forty years ago. This song can be called sweet without the word being a cliche.
Joy's Disorder may not be everyone's cup of tea, but it should interest those who enjoy music that's a bit experimental, a bit artsy, with a smattering of poetry thrown in for good measure. I know I'm one of those people. This release is a welcome relief from the usual run of singer/songwriter albums.
Go to the websites for Cate Friesen or Patrick Freisen if you want to learn more about these two very talented artists.
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Review Written: February 5, 2000
Page Last modified: February 14, 2004
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