Alfred Harth

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Alfred Harth (A23H) in 2007
Alfred Harth (A23H) in 2007

Alfred 23 Harth is a German multimedia artist, band leader, musician, and composer who mixes genres in a polystylistic manner.

Harth was born in 1949 in Kronberg im Taunus, Germany and artistically initiated by visiting a dada exhibition in 1958 in Frankfurt/Main.

With his essay "On Synaesthetics" in 1967 he opened his creative horizons to a large variety of artistic fields. He included classical string players in his free improvisation group Just Music in 1967 and opened the same year the platform centrum freier cunst in Frankfurt—a meeting point for live free music, art exhibitions, experimental poetry, action, and happening events.

He formed the group E.M.T. with artist and pianist Nicole Van den Plas from Belgium and Sven-Ake Johansson from Sweden. E.M.T. included dada and fragmented classical works from Grieg, Schubert, and others. In 1976 he joined the loft jazz scene in New York a second time and recorded the first LP of the Duo Goebbels/Harth including works from Hanns Eisler and later Johann Sebastian Bach. The same year he started to work with video.In 1979 he began to compose for the theatre and made punk jazz. In 1982 he co-founded Cassiber and initiated Duck and Cover for which he designed a composition in 1983 and co-organized the Marry the World By Conference Call in 1984 at the waschSalon gallery in Frankfurt/Main which he maintained with his then-wife from 1984 to 1991.

In 1985 he adapted the number 23 in his name and short name A23H, see more about his art events: Alfred 23 Harth (A23H). He recorded the LP Nouvelle Cuisine with Gestalt et Jive, and composed a minimalist video installation Sam Lang and in 1986 contributed an Amphibian Match to the underwater concert initiated by Micky Remann in Frankfurt/Main. The same year he produced a remix album Anything Goes. He wrote a manifest Paradigmenwechsel in 1988 in which he proclaims the Instant City Happiness I-culture. The same year he founded the post modern group Vladimir Estragon comprising Einstuerzende Neubauten drummer FM Einheit. In 1989 he created the performance Wenn Gott tot ist, dann ist er im Himmel with a sound collage of original interviews with Jean Baudrillard, Villem Flusser, Friedrich Kittler, and a performance with Russian poet Dmitri Prigov at the Documenta Archive in Kassel in 1990.The same year he exhibited William Burrough's Paintings on Paper in Frankfurt/Main and had a retrospective of his own visual arts called 2324 FU at the Dominikanerkloster, Frankfurt. In 1992 he met his wife, Korean artist Yi Soonjoo, and was portrayed by Moscow TV in the short film Balance Action which was shown at the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen.

In 1994 Harth was a member in the artist group Delicatesy Avantgarde with exhibitions in Gdansk and made a street installation "Wilhelm Leuschner zum Gedenken" in context with his art project Gedankenhotel, 1993-1995, and had a retrospective Tensides at the Deutsches Filmmuseum. He made a remix album Pollock with out-of-print Alfred Harth Lps in 1996 and in 1997-8 he re-arranged, conducted, and performed the West Side Story at the main theatre in Frankfurt. In 2000 he formed Trio Viriditas in New York together with Wilber Morris and Kevin Norton.In 2001-02 he had a grant at Samzie Space in Seoul and created the LaubhuetteStudio Seoul.In 2003 he started composing a five item CD series "Mother-Of-Pearl" about Korea comprising a DVD T_error (2005). A23H founded many other bands and composed for film, TV, theatre, ballet, and radio plays. Currently he lives and works mostly in Korea and Japan since 2001.

Contents

[edit] Group formations and discography (selection)

Just Music - A23H/Thomas Cremer/Dieter Herrmann/Johannes Krämer/Thomas Stoewsand/Witold Teplitz/ Peter Stock/Franz Volhard :

  • Just Music ECM1002, 1969
  • Born Free CBS, 1970
A23H's fire painting from 1967
A23H's fire painting from 1967

E.M.T. - A23H/Sven-Åke Johansson/Nicole van den Plas :

  • Canadian Cup of Coffee FMP, 1974

Duo Goebbels/Harth:

  • Vier Faeuste fuer Hanns Eisler FMP, 1976 +Recommended Records,2007
  • Vom Sprengen des Gartens FMP, 1978+Recommended Records,2007
  • Indianer fuer Morgn Riskant, 1981
  • Zeit wird knapp Riskant, 1981
  • Frankfurt/Peking Riskant, 1984
  • Live in Victoriaville victo,LP + CD, 1987
  • Goebbels Heart evva, 1992

So-Called Left-Radical Brass Band / Sogenanntes Linksradikales Blasorchester :

  • Mit Gelben Birnen Trikont, 1977/80 + DoubleCD in 1999

Cassiber - A23H/Christoph Anders/Chris Cutler/Heiner Goebbels :

Duck and Cover - A23H/Tom Cora/Chris Cutler/Fred Frith/Heiner Goebbels/Dagmar Krause/George Lewis :

Gestalt et Jive - A23H/Steve Beresford/Anton Fier/Peter Hollinger/Ferdinand Richard/Uwe Schmitt :

  • Nouvelle Cuisine Moers Music, 1985
  • Gestalt et Jive Trio Creative Works Records, 1986

Duo Alfred 23 Harth/John Zorn :

  • Anything Goes Creative Works Records, 1986
  • Plan Eden Creative Works Records, 1987

Duo Brötzmann/23 Harth :

  • Go-No-Go FMP, 1987

Lindsay Cooper's OH MOSCOW - A23H/Lindsay Cooper/Hugh Hopper/Marilyn Mazur/ Phil Minton/Elvira Plenar/Sally Potter :

Alfred 23 Harth in 1988
Alfred 23 Harth in 1988
  • Oh Moscow! (victo, 1989)

Vladimir Estragon - A23H/FM Einheit/Ulrike Haage/Phil Minton :

  • Three Quarks For Muster Mark enja/tiptoe,LP +CD 1989

Domestic Stories - A23H/Chris Cutler/Fred Frith/Lutz Glandien/Dagmar Krause :

Trio Trabant a Roma - A23H/Lindsay Cooper/Phil Minton :

  • State Of Volgograd FMP, 1994

QuasarQuartet - A23H/Simon Nabatov/Vladimir Tarasov/Vitold Rek)

  • POPendingEYE free flow music, 1992

Imperial Hoot - A23H/Guenter Bozem/Marcel Daemgen/Christoph Korn :

  • Secrets of Development Blue Noises,1999

Trio Viriditas - A23H/Wilber Morris/Kevin Norton)

Otomo Yoshihide New Jazz Orchestra (ONJO) - A23H/Otomo Yoshihide/ Sachiko M/Axel Dörner/Mats Gustafsson/Toshimaru Nakamura/
Cor Fuhler/Tsugami Kenta/Aoki Taisei/Okura Masahiko/Ishikawa Ko/Unami Taku/Takara Kumiko/Kahimi Karie/Mizutani Hiroaki/Yoshigaki Yasuhiro)

  • ONJO doubtmusic, 2005
  • Out to Lunch doubtmusic, 2005
  • ONJO live Vol.1 series circuit doubtmusic,2007
  • ONJO live Vol.2 parallel circuit doubtmusic,2007

Otomo Yoshihide's Invisible Songs - A23H/Otomo Yoshihide/Yoshigaki Yasuhiro/Kahimi Karie/Leonid Soybelman/Kondo Tatsuo/Nasuno Mitsuru/Kawai Shinobu/ Yamamoto Seiichi/ Jim O'Rourke

  • "Sora" East Works Entertainment,2007

Expedition - A23H/Chris Dahlgren/Jay Rosen/Hans Tammen

Homura Trio - A23H/Yoriyuki Harada/Choi Sun Bae

  • "Homura" off note,2007

7k Oaks - A23H/Luca Venitucci/Massimo Pupillo/Fabrizio Spera

  • "7000 Oaks" die schachtel,2007

[edit] Discography of special projects (selection)

MOTHER-OF-PEARL-SERIES (1.-5.,made in Korea),2003-2006 :

  • 1. "eShip sum“ /
  • 2. "nu:clear re:actor“
  • 3. DVD "T_error“ / CD "kr ./. jp“ /
  • 4. "Seoul Milk“
  • 5. "NUN"

[edit] References

  • Christoph Wagner: Brüche und Kontinuität,Alfred 23 Harth,in “Neue Zeitschrift für Musik”,Schott Music,Mainz,Germany, 6/2007
  • Steve Lake,Paul Griffiths:”Horizons Touched - The Music of ECM” ,Granta Books, London
  • Schwab,Juergen. Der Frankfurt Sound. Frankfurt/Main: Societaetsverlag, 2004.
  • Repecaud, Dominique. Musique Action. Vandoeuvre, France: CCAM, 1993.
  • Quinke, Ralph. jazz + more. Kiel, Germany: Nieswand Verlag, 1992.

[edit] External links

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