Prints (album)

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Prints
Studio album by Fred Frith
Released	2002
Recorded	1987–2001
Genre	Experimental rock Free improvisation
Length	41:36
Label	Fred (UK)
Producer	Fred Frith
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link Progressive World (4.5/5) link
Fred Frith chronology
Accidental (2002) Prints (2002) Rivers and Tides (2003)
Fred Records chronology
Guitar Solos (2002) Fred Frith (RēR/FRO 02) Prints (2002) Fred Frith (RēR/FRA 02) That House We Lived In (2003) Keep the Dog (RēR/FRA 03)

Prints: Snapshots, Postcards, Messages and Miniatures, 1987-2001 is a 2002 album by English guitarist, composer and improvisor Fred Frith, and his first album of songs since Cheap at Half the Price (1983). It comprises four tracks taken from previously released compilations that Frith had contributed to between 1987 and 1997, seven tracks that were "created spontaneously" in the studio in 1997 and 2001, and one live guitar improvisation in 2001. The album was released on CD in 2002 on Fred Records and was the second release in Frith's archival release program on the record label.

Contents 1 Content 1.1 Compilation tracks 1.2 Improvisations 2 Track listing 2.1 Track notes 3 Personnel 3.1 Sound and artwork 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Content

[edit] Compilation tracks

"Trains & Boats & Planes" and "The Ballad of Melody Nelson" are two cover songs Frith recorded for Tzadik tribute CDs, Great Jewish Music: Burt Bacharach (1997) and Great Jewish Music: Serge Gainsbourg (1997) respectively. "Life of a Detective" was recorded with the 5uu's in 1990 and appeared on Place of General Happiness (1993). "True Love" was recorded in 1987 and was released on a Shimmy Disc compilation, The 20th Anniversary of the Summer of Love (1987).

[edit] Improvisations

The tracks "Stones", "Fingerprints", "Trocosi", "Levity", "I Want it to be Over" and "In the Winter of '64" were recorded for a WDR radio production by Alexander Schuhmacher in January 1997. Frith explained how the pieces were created: ^[1]

“

The aim of the program was to explore the nature of improvisation. I was supposed to create pieces spontaneously, using my choices from a long list of sampled fragments which I heard only after arriving in the studio. The texts were derived from whatever was in the newpapers on the day of the recording. All these songs were composed and constructed directly onto tape without preparation.

”

"Reduce Me" was recorded four years later using the same approach described above. "Spot" was a live guitar improvisation by Frith recorded in July 2001 where he used a live sampler to dynamically capture and loop guitar sounds (see Frith's equipment).

[edit] Track listing

1. "Trains & Boats & Planes" (Bacharach, David) – 5:07
2. "Stones" (Frith) – 2:02
3. "Fingerprints" (Frith) – 3:50
4. "Life of a Detective" (Frith, Brookings) – 3:13
5. "The Ballad of Melody Nelson" (Gainsbourg) – 2:01
6. "Trocosi" (Frith) – 4:36
7. "Reduce Me" (Frith) – 5:48
8. "Levity" (Frith) – 2:36
9. "True Love" (Frith) – 2:56
10. "I Want it to be Over" (Frith) – 3:01
11. "Spot" (Frith) – 4:38
12. "In the Winter of '64" (Frith) – 1:48

[edit] Track notes

1. From Great Jewish Music: Burt Bacharach (1997, Tzadik);
       recorded at Jankowski Studio, Esslingen, Germany, 1996.
2. Recorded at Jankowski Studio, Esslingen, Germany, January 1997;
       text: International Herald Tribune, 27/01/97, "Palestinian independence celebrations in Hebron";
       sample: "Ligueyou Ndeye" by Doudou N'Diaye Rose.
3. Recorded at Jankowski Studio, Esslingen, Germany, January 1997.
4. From Place of General Happiness (1993, Modern Variety Music);
       recorded at Triple Helix, Denver, Colorado, 1990 (engineer: Bob Drake).
5. From Great Jewish Music: Serge Gainsbourg (1997, Tzadik);
       recorded at Jankowski Studio, Esslingen, Germany, 1997.
6. Recorded at Jankowski Studio, Esslingen, Germany, January 1997;
       text: International Herald Tribune, 28/01/97, "Enslavement of women in Ghana";
       sample: "Where Do You Want to Go" by Kahil El'Zabar.
7. Recorded at Jankowski Studio, Esslingen, Germany, 2001;
       text: The Guardian, July 2001, "Afghan woman returns home after ten years of exile".
8. Recorded at Jankowski Studio, Esslingen, Germany, January 1997;
       sample: "Kattajait" from Inuit Games and Songs (UNESCO Collection);
       sample: applause for Helmut Kohl speech, Brandenburg Gate, Berlin.
9. From The 20th Anniversary of the Summer of Love (1987, Shimmy Disc);
       recorded at Noise, New York City, 1987 (engineer: Mark Kramer).
10. Recorded at Jankowski Studio, Esslingen, Germany, January 1997;
        text: International Herald Tribune, 27/01/97, "Bill Clinton interviewed about Monica Lewinsky";
        samples: Escher-loop, broken glass.
11. Recorded at Jankowski Studio, Esslingen, Germany, July 2001.
12. Recorded at Jankowski Studio, Esslingen, Germany, January 1997.

[edit] Personnel

• Fred Frith – all instruments (except those listed below), voice
• Bernd "Lönsch" Lehmann (2,3) – clarinet, tenor saxophone
• Mike Johnson (4) – principal voice
• Dave Kerman (4) – backup voice
• Sebastian Gramms (6) – acoustic bass
• Alexandra Schulz (7) – additional voice
• Sheena Dupuis (9) – backing vocal

[edit] Sound and artwork

• Re-mixed, re-constructed and compiled at Jankowski Studio, Esslingen, Germany, by Peter Hardt and Fred Frith, July 2001
• CD cover design by Tomas Kurth
• Polaroid photograph by Heike Liss

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Prints: Snapshots, Postcards, Messages and Miniatures, 1987-2001 at Allmusic
• Fred Frith discography

v • d • e Fred Frith Henry Cow • Art Bears • Massacre • Skeleton Crew • Keep the Dog Duck and Cover • French Frith Kaiser Thompson • Death Ambient • Fred Frith Guitar Quartet • Maybe Monday • Cosa Brava Aksak Maboul • Material • Naked City Discography Guitar Solos (1974) • Gravity (1980) • Speechless (1981) • Live in Japan (1982) • Cheap at Half the Price (1983) • The Technology of Tears (1988) • The Top of His Head (1989) • Step Across the Border (1990) • Quartets (1994) • Middle of the Moment (1995) • Allies (1996) • Eye to Ear (1997) • The Previous Evening (1997) • Pacifica (1998) • Stone, Brick, Glass, Wood, Wire (1999) • Clearing (2001) • Freedom in Fragments (2002) • Accidental (2002) • Prints (2002) • Rivers and Tides (2003) • Eye to Ear II (2004) • Eleventh Hour (2005) • Impur (2006) • The Happy End Problem (2006) • Back to Life (2008) Related articles Fred Frith discography • Fred Records