Fred Frith solo concert

The concert of this summer is probably going to be the solo concert with Fred Frith, Saturday July 8, 2006 here in Copenhagen.

Fred Frith has been performing and composing music in the space between rock and jazz, avantgarde and modern composition for more than 30 years; First in the UK in the late 1960s and 1970s in the bands Henry Cow and Art Bears, and later, in the 1980s as part of the New York experimental music scene together with e.g. John Zorn, Tom Cora and Arto Lindsay.

Fred Frith’s music might be challenging to people not familiar with improvised music — and music which doesn’t easily fit into conventional musical genres — but everyone on board the MS Stubnitz, an old transport ship from East Germany now used for concerts, seemed to be astonished by the many colors of sound that came from Frith’s solo guitar performance.

It’s not conventional guitar playing: Frith uses many objects and effects to create music: drumsticks, a violin bow, a walkie talkie, various pieces of cloth, a metal chain, little metal bowls and two hands full of rice were amongst the items used to make music. It’s improvised music, music performed without a net (an approach we appreciate here at Without a Map, of course).

If you care to give the music of Fred Frith a listen, here’s a small playlist.

Supporting act for Fred Frith was Cockpit Music, a Danish free form saxophone-guitar-drum trio playing both old and new songs — all together an excellent evening of improvised music.

UPDATE (2006-08-14): Audio and video is now available for download from the MS Stubnitz webpage (direct link to media file page).

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