Unfortunately Friedsitar only made one record, although dialogue still continues between good friends Edward Powell and Scott White. Since drummer Emil Heyrovsky has left music, and Edward's musical focus has shifted from sitar to fretless guitar, it is likely that FRESH will be remembered as being a unique and beautiful "snapshot" in time. The CD itself, truly captures this 'moment', as it was composed and recorded very spontaneously... a few of the tracks were written there on the spot, or in the evening after a days recording.
What is rare about FRESH is that it is a fusion done by musicians who really took the time to learn very deeply the things they were fusing. This is very uncommon. Scott is a master of both rock and jazz, Eddi is a master of rock and Indian music, and Emil is a master of jazz and Indian music... so the result is 33% rock, 33% jazz, and 33% Indian music. . . of course, the mixture itself means nothing - it is the "how" which is important. Perhaps this kind of fusion is most gracefully done by musicians coming from a country like Canada - Canada itself being a nation of peaceful, playful, respectful, and beautiful cultural fusion... very FRESH indeed!
Scott White - contrabass
The
"Friedsitar" concept was born in Victoria, Canada in 1996 after
a meeting between it's founding members; Edward Powell and Scott White.
Over the succeeding years Powell and White performed with several percussionists
to finally settle with the young and very talented Emil Heyrovsky of Prague.
Emil Heyrovsky
Edward Powell and Emil Heyrovsky gave more than 150 public performances of Indian classical music between the years 1998 and 2001. As a sitar/tabla duo, and in trio and with "FriedSitar", and ethno-fusion group "Kailash", Ed and Emil have appeared on Czech T.V., and at many of that country's major music festivals. Emil and Ed met in Prague in 1998 and began to perform regularly almost immediately producing a close bond between them.