Erik Friedlander - Artemisia (2018)

“After the first glass, you see things as you wish they were. After the second, you see them as they are not. Finally you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world.” — Oscar Wilde

Sparked by a viewing of Pablo Picasso’s mysterious absinthe glass sculptures at MoMA, renowned cellist Erik Friedlander and his new band Throw A Glass - Uri Caine on piano, Mark Helias on bass, and Ches Smith on drums - spent the next year and a half writing and recording Artemisia, a concept album about the murky history of absinthe and its use as a brain-bending hallucinogen. Artemisia is full of hypnotic meditations on obsession, and songs that optimistically chase euphoria and "the green fairy." “I don’t think I’ve ever felt so strongly about one of my projects,” says Friedlander.