[.ca] Cool Of The Day

Luminous Chamber Folk:
Even though I've given this album 4 stars rather than 5, it's one of a handful of CDs on my shelf that I would not be willing to part with. Trapezoid produced what might best be described as chamber folk. Its four members (Lorraine Duisit, Freyda Epstein, Ralph Gordon and Paul Reisler) were each highly skilled musicians and their collaboration was near-perfect, producing music that was always beautiful and sometimes startling: "Cool of the Day", the title number, is a tour de force of a capella singing, tingling harmonies and sinuous melody. The album's flaw, such as it is, is that sometimes the loveliness can cloy. More often, it's transporting. And it's not as though the world couldn't do with more beauty. I write this review six days after Freyda Epstein, who sang and played violin and viola so gorgeously on this record, was killed in a car accident. Her CD _Midnight at Cabell Hall_ (with Acoustic AttaTude) is well worth your time, but her contribution to this album was a gift I am deeply glad we were given. Farewell Freyda, and thanks.

• Nightsong
• Bramble and the Rose
• Zebra Wounded by Spear
• Country Home
• Rainfall/Little Rose Is Gone
• Never Was to Africa
• War of the Flea
• I'll Be Here in the Morning
• Border
• Now Is the Cool of the Day