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My Winter Condition |
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Sympathy Twigs |
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ANNIE LEWANDOWSKI, FRED FRITH Long As In Short, Walk As In Run
Fred Frith is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improvisor. Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. He was also a member of Art Bears, Massacre, Skeleton Crew, Cosa Brava and the FF Guitar Quartet. He has collaborated with many prominent musicians, including Lotte Anker, Robert Wyatt, Derek Bailey, Brian Eno, The Residents, Bill Laswell, Lars Hollmer, Iva Bittová, Jad Fair and John Zorn. Annie Lewandowski is a composer and performer who works in song and improvisation. As an improviser on piano, accordion, and electronics, she has performed and recorded with musicians like Fred Frith, the London Improvisers Orchestra or Caroline Kraabel. As a singer, guitarist, and keyboardist, she has recorded with bands and ensembles including Emma Zunz, Xiu Xiu, The Curtains, Former Ghosts, and Yarn/Wire. Her own band Powerdove has released ten recordings. Long As In Short, Walk As In Run was originally released in 2011 on Danish Ninth World Music label and has been out of print for years. It's a piano and guitar album. For this re-edition we have added a previously unreleased 11 minute bonus track. Full tracklist: 1. Night Owls 2. Standsee Warble 3. Ridgesia 4. My Winter Condition 5. Stared At The Bird Statue And Tried To Think 6. Sympathy Twigs 7. Dockandoilish 8. Ice Canvas 9. The Tell. Price: € 18,-/copy incl. worldwide shipping.
The music never gets too freakish or chaotic, but this duo exercises great control in their respective approaches to the instruments. I assume both use a few electronics here and there, sometimes providing a lingering, sustaining sound. On top of that, both instruments are approached with an investigative mind. The guitar and the piano do not always sound like one but rather like objects. And these objects are played with other objects, surface upon a surface, resulting in a dialogue between both instruments and players, together and alone, if you get my drift. The music is reflective, most of the time, with an occasional dip on the keyboard or strings, adding a melodic touch to the proceedings, such as in Strandsee Marble. Somewhere between electro-acoustic and improvisation, this disc contains some wonderfully intense music, which took me a couple of rounds to get into.
(Vital Weekly, December 2022)
Fred Friths adventurous applications of the technique have become legendary. On this album he is teamed up with pianist Annie Lewandowski, both of them improvising together on instruments that have been prepared in various ways. As one might expect, the musical results are pretty wild, but also generally very subtle and detailed. This is an album to play at high volume — not in order to revel in its hellacious noise, but rather in order to hear everything thats going on. Highly recommended to all adventurous collections.
(CD Hotlist, December 2022)
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