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Topic: Fred Frith


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In the News (Tue 8 Dec 09)

  
  E.J.N. - FRED FRITH   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
Fred Frith was born in 1949 and raised in Yorkshire, England in a household where music was considered an essential part of everyday life.
Frith can also be heard in duos with John Zorn, Hans Reichel, Tim Hodgkinson and Tenko on an intermittent but continuing basis.
Much in demand as an instrumentalist, Frith has played on dozens of albums of all descriptions, tours regularly in a variety of contexts and is currently the bass player in John Zorn’s Naked City.
www.ejn.it /mus/frith.htm   (459 words)

  
 BBC - Experimental Review - Fred Frith, Accidental
Speaking of this dance commission, Frith has indicated that he set out to incorporate random events, i.e., accidents, into the compositions (hence the title), but the chance elements are always integrated into the overall concept or shape of the various selections, and there is nothing careless about Frith's results.
Frith is a far more aggressive composer than Morton Feldman, and superficially not at all the same, but he has borrowed Feldman's trick of altering repetitive elements almost subliminally, so that the listener never gets lost, but is also never quite sure of his or her bearings.
Frith also makes good use of ambient, somewhat sepulchral organ drones throughout (usually in combination with other elements), and he throws the listener a substantial curve on "fooled again" (maybe that's the point of the song title?) which is an unexpectedly gorgeous Baroque-flavored composition played by what sounds like treated reverb guitar and/or violin.
www30.thdo.bbc.co.uk /music/experimental/reviews/frithfred_accident.shtml   (615 words)

  
 Fred Frith: ReR USA
The best examples here are, "Their Blood is Black and Yellow" (where some of Fred's most brutal guitar improvising to date is offset by a glorious set of organ chords), and "Incoming", where electronically slashing "scream- guitars" are interspersed with the quiet cryings of cleaner tones, both soloing over a steadily sampled backing track.
Fred's creative restraint often allows the instrument to speak for itself - resonances and sustaining sounds trail off of their own volition, or carry on by themselves, with no interference from the artist- who, by virtue of being in control of his instrument, seems to be solely motivated by it.
To call the performances "lively" would be an understatement, and although there is a fair amount of excellent group improvisation (each of the members are known for their expertise in the field) the composed sections, which far outnumber the ad libitums, are played as tightly and energetically as any group could ever hope for.
www.rerusa.com /Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=RERUSA&Category_Code=FRITH   (1798 words)

  
 Browse by Artist: FRITH, FRED
The compositions were culled from all periods of Fred's career, and the idea was to re-make them with a wild, inspirational and improvising aesthetic.
Here they give a dynamic reading of Fred Frith's major composition Freedom in Fragments, which was written expressly for them and comprises a series of short compositions that can be played in whole or in part and in any given sequence.
"Fred Frith is one of the world's greatest originals on the guitar, a composer/performer who has been at the forefront of avant garde music since the early '70s.
www.forcedexposure.com /artists/frith.fred.html   (1980 words)

  
 TrouserPress.com :: Fred Frith
If Fred Frith were remembered only for being the guitarist in Henry Cow he would be just another shadowy figure in the history of art-rock.
Frith's bass, guitar and violin are prominent, yet merged into a whole that is stronger than its dovetailed parts, all held together by ingenuity and force of will.
Frith alternated conventional and homemade guitars, six-string bass, violin and keyboards while occasionally singing in a high-pitched voice.
www.trouserpress.com /entry.php?a=fred_frith   (727 words)

  
 The History of Rock Music. Fred Frith: biography, discography, reviews, links
Frith esordi` alla testa di uno dei piu` significativi gruppi di progressive-rock, con gli Henry Cow, e poi continuo` quell'avventura negli Art Bears.
Frith suona poco e in quel poco suona molto le tastiere; il suo posto e' ormai in cabina di regia, a girar manopole e premere pulsanti.
By the mid 1990s, Frith had perfected his musical art, a collage-style juxtaposition of improvised jams and cells of composed music, and he was merely re-enacting the same idea in different contexts.
www.scaruffi.com /vol3/frith.html   (2764 words)

  
 Fred Frith and Nouvel Ensemble Moderne at FIMAV
The program for the latter concert consists of works that Frith wrote for different ensembles at various times, the most recent of which, "Shading my face it shall be you," was commissioned by the Relâche Ensemble and premiered in January of this year.
Frith is eclectic in his handling of themes, rhythm, harmony and timbre, going full-tilt into exploration of sonic textures alluding to everything from Stravinsky to global folk music and the world of machines.
Fred Frith and Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Sunday May 18 at 10:00 PM at the Colisée des Bois-Francs in Victoriaville.
www.scena.org /lsm/sm8-8/FIMAV.htm   (350 words)

  
 Amazon.com: Music: Clearing   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
Fred Frith has done just about a million things in the music world, although he remains known primarily as a prime experimental guitarist.
But Fred is also one of the greatest live performers, you will find a confirmation of this opinion in a live track, recorded in Poland, at the "capitol" of polish avant-garde music, the "Mozg" club.
Fred is a frequent visitor in Bydgoszcz, I'm especially proud that a piece recorded in June 2000, on the very next day after Massacre performance at Warsaw Summer Jazz Days, is included on this remarkable album, which will be one of the first on the list of Fred's best records.
www.amazon.com /exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005J72P?v=glance   (1572 words)

  
 Splendid Magazine reviews Derek Bailey, Antoine Berthiaume, Fred Frith: Soshin
You might, quite possibly, respond just as Antoine Berthiaume did, and say "How about Derek Bailey and Fred Frith?" Bailey, after all, is the grand old man of the collective improvisatory movement, known for eliciting an extraordinary array of unguitarlike sounds from his instrument.
Frith was a founder of semi-mythical prog pioneers Henry Cow and has since moved on to a whole range of experimental ensembles, including, most recently, the Fred Frith Guitar Quartet.
The final Frith duet, "Wolf's Wood", uses a similar palette of unusual sounds -- the growl and twitter of finger stretching strings, a curious muted sawing and the insistent drumming of fingers on wood.
www.splendidezine.com /review.html?reviewid=3268445741427808   (781 words)

  
 BBC - Experimental Review - Fred Frith, Speechless
Speechless was Fred Frith's second album for the San Franciscan Ralph label, and was originally issued in 1981.
Frith piles up layers of sharp, melodic guitars, woozy mellotrons or mournfully folky violins, with reults that range from the infectiously melodic to the fearsomely dense.
At this point Frith was resident in New York, and had been nursing a more agressive, pared-down guitar style with the likes of Bill Laswell's Material and the superb power trio Massacre (also featuring Laswell and drummer Fred Maher).
www30.thdo.bbc.co.uk /music/experimental/reviews/frithfred_speechless.shtml   (640 words)

  
 Fred Frith - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fred Frith (born February 17, 1949) is an English musician and composer.
He is brother of Chris Frith, a psychologist working at University College London
Frith has also made two records with experimental group French Frith Kaiser Thompson (consisting of John French, Frith, Henry Kaiser, and Richard Thompson).
www.wikipedia.org /wiki/Fred_Frith   (155 words)

  
 Berkeley: Guitarist challenges music, listeners, himself
Frith may play guitar with a paintbrush instead of a pick, drop a tin lid on the strings or use pedals to disguise the instrument's normal sound character.
Frith has been involved in hundreds of recordings, and the top two shelves of the bookcase bend with CDs he has made or had a hand in.
Frith's vocabulary is ever evolving as he experiments with sound, and as accidents, like the wrench episode, evolve into techniques.
www.sfgate.com /cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/11/26/EBGE49S01P67.DTL   (1346 words)

  
 FRED FRITH . COM :: Discography :: GUITAR SOLOS   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
On 'Guitar Solos' he pares down, side-stepping his skills on piano, violin and bass to bring the axiomatic instrument of popular music into confrontation with the improvising tradition and the creative process.
Frith delivers his exploration of the spiritual pre-cursors of modern improvised music into a rare state of animation.
Improvised music rarely moves so close to the more popular genres it ghosts so obliquely 'Guitar Solos' records the musician whose ears are always open, and whose hands witness the timely refusal to separate form from content.
www.fredfrith.com /discography/guitar_so3.html   (529 words)

  
 Review: "Fred Frith: Gravity" - Sea of Tranquility - The Web Destination for Progressive Music!
Frith does manage many occassions where he interjects his distorted, jagged guitar lines, as on the bouncy and all too quick "Norrgarden Nyvla." Many tracks highlight great unison guitar/violin/piano lines, with a very upbeat rhythm section behind it.
Frith may start out a tune with a metallic guitar blast or shrill violin charge, as on "What a Dilemma", which hints at noise and dissonant art forms, before the track seques into a funky jazz groove.
Fred Frith is a very overlooked and important member of rock guitar history, and this solo release a perfect example of his skills and songwriting abilities.
www.seaoftranquility.org /reviews.php?op=showcontent&id=196   (407 words)

  
 Fred Frith
Frith was playing "table-top guitar." At one point he covered the guitar with layer after layer of cloths, and then began to strike the hidden guitar with mallets.
Frith's exploration of the ``table-top guitar'' and his use of household objects upon the guitar have permeated the music of creative guitarists all over the world to the point that it's unusual to see an improvising guitarist who doesn't at some point begin hammering upon the strings with an electric screwdriver or egg-beater!
Fred Frith's music touches some place very deep, and never fails to stir both the heart and the imagination of the listener.
www.plonsey.com /beanbenders/FredFrith.html   (1054 words)

  
 Fred Frith: Reviews, Discography, Audio Clips, and more ||| Music.com   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
Frith lived in New York for 14 years; some of his well-known ventures in that time included Massacre (with Bill Laswell and Fred Maher), Skeleton Crew (with Cora and Parkins), and his sextet Keep the Dog.
In the '80s, Frith's compositional activities increased; he began writing for dance, film, and theater, and for such ensembles as the Rova Saxophone Quartet, Ensemble Moderne, Asko Ensemble, and his own Guitar Quartet.
Frith was the subject of Step Across the Border, a documentary film by Nicolas Humbert and Werner Penzels.
music.com /person/fred_frith/1   (365 words)

  
 Hello Music! the fanlisting for Fred Frith   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
Fred Frith was born in Heathfield, England on February 17, 1949.
Frith now resides in Oakland, California with his wife where he teaches composition at Mills College.
I am in no way afiliated with Fred Frith or anyone involved in his work and career, I am just a fan.
fan.500ml.org /frith/about.php   (191 words)

  
 Fred Frith   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
Most of Fred Frith's recordings from the last 15 years are improvised.
These three pieces are mood music, profound in their use of silence and quiet details like the rumblings of prepared piano or the smooth interjections of clarinet and long, sustained bass tones from Frith's guitars.
The writing trundles closer to ambient music than the shorter pieces he's written for TV and the stage in recent years (collected on the recent Eye to Ear on the Tzadik label).
www.bostonphoenix.com /archive/music/98/03/12/OTR/FRED_FRITH.html   (177 words)

  
 CD Review of Fred Frith - Speechless on Fred Records/ReR Megacorp @ jazzreview.com
He seemingly defies musical boundaries and categorizations, which is an element surrounding this important re-release on the artist’s record label.
Frith’s anti-pop/rock musings boasts an organic tinge, along with saxophonist George Cartwright and the “Massacre” band, featuring bassist Bill Laswell and drummer Fred Maher, among others.
Ultimately, Frith shines as a multitasking instrumentalist by using his guitars; keys and violin as vehicles for twisting catchy melodic hooks into avant based foundations.
www.jazzreview.com /cdreview.cfm?ID=5648   (245 words)

  
 Artist Detail   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
Fred Frith, composer, improviser and multi-instrumentalist, has situated himself for more than thirty years in the area where rock music and new music meet.
Best known world-wide as an improvising guitarist, Frith has also performed in a variety of other contexts, playing bass in John Zorn's Naked City, violin in Lars Hollmer's Looping Home Orchestra, and guitar on recordings ranging from The Residents and René Lussier to Brian Eno and Amy Denio.
Frith is the subject of Nicolas Humbert and Werner Penzels' award-winning documentary film Step Across the Border.
www.bayimproviser.com /artistdetail.asp?artist_id=141   (229 words)

  
 SurfWax: News, Reviews and Articles On Fred Frith
When she joins fellow musician Fred Frith to record a live, improvisational album, we are privy to much of their atonal creativity.
It follows Glennie into an abandoned sugar factory in Germany where she is to record an entirely improvised album with similarly adventurous multi- instrumentalist Fred Frith.
The avant-garde is represented by guitarist Fred Frith and alto saxophonist Wally Shoup, while young lions like Joshua Redman and Terrence Blanchard maintain the commercial mainstream.
news.surfwax.com /music/files/Fred_Frith.html   (924 words)

  
 Grooves Magazine - Reviews: Fred Frith - Middle of the Moment   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
Guitarist Fred Frith has always been musical nomad, a peripatetic sonic traveler trawling genres and styles with an insatiable curiosity and daring.
They then handed Frith the material, but instead creating a typical soundtrack, he took the field recordings from locations like Bohemia, Bermuda, Patmos, Monthelon, and re-configured them with his new music into what he has called a sound movie, using a process similar to that of editing film.
In some instances, Frith has left the field recordings of traditional singing and drumming, accordion and violin music, conversations, goats, trucks, flies, cicadas, thunder, and fire untouched.
www.groovesmag.com /review_item.php?id=00000082   (264 words)

  
 BBC - Experimental Review - Fred Frith, Gravity
Recorded in 1979, Fred Frith's first solo album proper after the demise of Henry Cow probably came as a bit of a shock to die hard fans.
Gravity however, was Fred's dance record; not the fashionable mutant disco of the early downtown New York scene (where Frith was in the process of setting up stall) but a celebration of rhythm that borrows from folk music, rock and God knows what else.
Likewise Fred's gleeful de/reconstruction of Martha and the Vandellas "Dancing in the Street"; a bizzarely harmonised guitar negotiates the melody over a boiling mass of feedback and tape manipulation (including a recording of Iranian demonstrators celebrating the capture of American hostages), eventually settling into a spare, gorgeous guitar solo over the closing chords.
www.bbc.co.uk /music/experimental/reviews/frithfred_gravity.shtml   (696 words)

  
 InternetEd Reviews: Fred Frith- Clearing   (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
Fred Frith is a veteran of experimental music, having worked with just about every avant garde musician out there at one time or another.
Basically, the music on Clearing ignores rhythm in the conventional sense and places Frith's guitar improvisations as the sole focus of the record.
Frith's experimental tracks on Clearing, though a bit long-winded, are an amazing testament to the man's unique and elusive guitar playing style.
www.interneted.com /Reviewpages/frithfredclearing.htm   (232 words)

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