Clearing (Fred Frith album) explained

Clearing
Type:studio
Artist:Fred Frith
Cover:FredFrith AlbumCover Clearing.jpg
Border:yes
Recorded:1996, 2000
Studio:Jankowski Studio, Stuttgart, Germany
Genre:Experimental rock
Label:Tzadik (US)
Producer:Fred Frith
Prev Title:2 Gentlemen in Verona
Prev Year:2000
Next Title:Freedom in Fragments
Next Year:2002

Clearing is a guitar solo album by English guitarist, composer and improvisor Fred Frith. It was Frith's first solo guitar recording since Live in Japan (1982) and his first solo guitar studio recording since his landmark 1974 album Guitar Solos.[1]

Clearing comprises eleven tracks of unaccompanied and improvised music played on prepared guitars by Frith. Ten of the tracks were recorded in Stuttgart, Germany in 1996 and 2000, and one was recorded live at the Konstrukcja w Procesie Festival VII in Bydgoszcz, Poland in 2000.

Background

In 2000, John Zorn commissioned Frith to make a guitar solo album for Tzadik Records as a follow-up to his 1974 album, Guitar Solos. Using prepared guitars, Frith recorded Clearing in Stuttgart, Germany in July 2000 in a similar vein as Guitar Solos, revisiting areas explored on that album but not developed further at the time. He also included two additional tracks, "Gaifu Kaisei" and "This Earth is a Flower" that had been recorded earlier.

Frith used a variety of found objects when recording the album. On "Chains", Frith placed a lozenger tin on the guitar strings and dropped a chain into the tin. An acoustic sound was achieved on "Blue" by placing microphones close to the electric guitar strings. Chopsticks were jammed between the guitar strings on "Gaifu Kaisei". "Minimalism" was performed entirely by striking the guitar strings with drumsticks.

Frith dedicated four of the tracks on the album to:

Reception

AllMusic said this of the album:[2]

Derk Richardson, writing for CT Insider, commented: "Some tracks are delicate and fragile, some are dense thickets of sonic thistles, some tiptoe with elegance and grace, some bully their way through time. However abstract or heady, none achieve anything less than absorbing grandeur."[3]

Track listing

  1. "White (for Andy Goldsworthy)" (Frith) – 9:28
  2. "Open Ocean" (Frith) – 5:12
  3. "Chains" (Frith) – 2:00
  4. "The Bow Moon" (Frith) – 4:00
  5. "Minimalism (for Tomoko Itani)" (Frith) – 5:07
  6. "Not With Love But With Fear" (Frith) – 6:03
  7. "Theatre" (Frith) – 10:09
  8. "Gaifu Kaisei (in memory of Akira Iijima)" (Frith) – 2:50
  9. "Road Movie" (Frith) – 2:12
  10. "This Earth is a Flower" (Frith) – 3:52
  11. "Blue (for Bill Frisell)" (Frith) – 3:12

Personnel

Sound and artwork

Notes and References

  1. Web site: [{{AllMusic|class=album|id=guitar-solos-mw0000611989|pure_url=yes}} Guitar Solos ]. AllMusic.com . Sean . Westergaard . 2006-11-21.
  2. Web site: [{{AllMusic|class=album|id=clearing-mw0000588171|pure_url=yes}} Clearing ]. AllMusic . Brian . Olewnick . 2007-02-27.
  3. Web site: Beyond Jazz 2001 / A subjective take on the best of this year's avant-garde and jazz . Derk . Richardson . December 20, 2001 . CT Insider . July 27, 2022.