Craig Pedersen – As Long As There Is Sorrow

Seven recordings of new music, by Craig Pedersen, Mark Molnar, Thierry Amar and Bennett Bedoukian.

What once was a quartet is split into constituent parts, with solos, double solos, duos, overlapping duos, and trios emerging.

Where once was clear notation, instead words, often vaguely given yet precisely executed.

Despite the absence of physical presence, the mysterious sense of being together.

I am grateful for the committment and support given in rendering this music to it’s completion.

Craig Pedersen, May 2024

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This album, the latest by Craig Pedersen, has been in the works since 2021, and features Mark Molnar on cello, Thierry Amar on double bass and Bennett Bedoukian on drums. It marks an evolution, or even revolution in his compositional practice and ways of working – with a move away from tangible melodic material, into the use of text and oral scores, to more tangibly and clearly express that which can not otherwise be expressed. Previous listeners to the Craig Pedersen Quartet may recognize the “chordless quartet” format at times, but life has been breathed anew with duos and trios.

The title piece “As Long As There Is Sorrow” was written during 2021 when Canada’s shameful past of First Nations Residential Schools was at the forefront of public consciousness. With this, came a resolution that whenever performed or released, I would use it as opportunity to raise the voices of those in need.

In short: Free Palestine.