Fred Frith (b.1949) is mostly known not only for his numerous bands (Henry Cow, Art Bears, Massacre, Skeleton Crew, Cosa Brava…) but also for his wild and experimental improvisations. However, Frith is not only an improviser but also a very prolific composer, and although he is mainly self-taught, he is also able to operate in the ”serious” art music circles. In fact, despite his lack of formal academic training, Frith has also been a professor of composition at Mills College and elsewhere.
I am not deeply or extensively familiar with Frith’s repertoire of ”serious contemporary music”, but the 23-minute ”Something About This Landscape For Ensemble” for chamber orchestra seems to be one of his strongest works in this field. ”Something About This Landscape For Ensemble” was commissioned by the Belgian contemporary music festival Ars Musica and will be performed by a ten-piece ensemble from the same country as Frith.
Frith composed ”Something About This Landscape For Ensemble” in 2018 when it was premiered at the Ars Musica Festival. Now, five years later, the composition is also available in recorded form. I’m not sure whether the version that made it onto the album is actually that premiere or whether it’s a new studio recording. I think it is the first performance that is at issue. In any case, the recording is of a high quality and there is no sound of the audience at any stage, but that is not surprising when it is concert music.
Read also: Review: Henry Cow – Leg End (1973)
”Something About This Landscape For Ensemble” is performed by the Ensemble Musiques Nouvelles, founded in 1962. I assume that the group works with varying configurations. Frith’s composition is interpreted by a ten-piece group including a flutist, clarinettist, trombonist, guitarist (acoustic), percussionist, keyboardist, two violinists, a violist, a cellist and conductor Jean-Paul Dessy.
Frith himself will also take part in the performance with his electric guitar. Even in the broadest sense, however, there are only a few brief moments of ”conventional” electric guitar playing by Frith. Mostly, he emits strange sounds from his prepared guitar with the help of various chains, metal sticks and other bits and pieces.
The composition consists of five sections. Some of these are strictly notated, but Frith, a specialist in improvisation, has also left free sections in this work which are only pre-designed in the form of loose graphic notation. Some parameters have also been left free and adjustable during the rehearsal phase. The album’s liner notes contain Frith’s instructions for performing the composition, the most amusing of which is a passage in which he hopes that every musician will have something metal to drop on the floor at the moment of their choosing in the final section of the composition. And sure enough, they do drop them!
As the above suggests, it is a very modernist/avant-garde work. The composition makes ample use of extended techniques such as the string players tapping and or scratching their instruments or the wind player blowing his horn without actually playing the notes. Despite this, Frith also proves himself to be a strong melodist this time around, as a few seductively simple melodies are interspersed among the choppy rhythms and atonality to make the listening experience a little easier. The composition’s piercing violins and dissonance sometimes remind me of Krzysztof Penderecki’s string music and in the complex rhythmic sections I can hear a hint of Art Zoyd. But it could just be the combined influences of Art Zoyd and Frith! However, the strong rhythmic energy heard here and there is pleasantly reminiscent of Frith’s rock background, yet still blending skilfully into the whole.
The complex ”Something About This Landscape For Ensemble” is at times curious and reflective, but at other times very raw and even violent. It’s a fascinating composition that is very Frith-like on the one hand, but also fits effortlessly into the canon of modern art music.
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The beef of Sub Rosa’s Something About This Landscape For Ensemble is of course the title composition described above, but there are also two improvisations of almost ten minutes, one recorded in concert in front of the audience and the other during rehearsals. These completely free collective improvisations are of obviously even more abstract music than ”Something About This Landscape”, but they serve as a surprisingly natural continuation to the composition. Partly, of course, because of the identical instrumentation. There is of course a certain amount of idle time when such a large group of musicians improvise, but once in a while the music really takes off in a dizzying way.
Something About This Landscape For Ensemble offers one of Frith’s most challenging compositions and two fine improvisations. This is definitely one of the art music gems of 2023.
Best tracks: ”Something About This Landscape”, ”Dirty And Light”
Kirjoittaja: JANNE YLIRUUSI
Read also: Review: Mary Halvorson – Amaryllis (2022)
Tracks
- Something About This Landscape for Ensemble 22:55
- Dirty and Light 9:34
- Dark Under Stars 9:51
Musicians
Fred Frith: electric guitar Berten D’Hollander: flute Charles Michiels: clarinet Adrien Lambinet: trombone Hughes Kolp: guitar Pierre Quiriny: percussion Claire Bourdet: violin Laurent Houque: violin Karel Coninx: viola Jean-Paul Zanutel: cello Giovanni Di Domenico: Fender Rhodes Jean-Paul Dessy: conductor
Label: Sub Rosa
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