Winter Songs

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Winter Songs
Studio album by Art Bears
Released	1979
Recorded	Switzerland, November–December 1978
Genre	Avant-progressive rock
Length	38:07
Label	Recommended (UK)
Producer	Art Bears Etienne Conod
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link Piero Scaruffi (7.5/10) link Robert Christgau (B+) link
Art Bears chronology
Hopes and Fears (1978) Winter Songs (1979) The World as It Is Today (1981)

Winter Songs is the second album by English avant-garde rock group Art Bears. It was recorded at Sunrise Studio in Kirchberg, Switzerland between 22 November and 5 December 1978, and was released in 1979. It was Art Bears' first album to be recorded on their own, the bulk of their first album, Hopes and Fears (1978) having being recorded as Henry Cow.

Contents 1 Recording the album 2 Track listing 3 Personnel 3.1 Sound and art work 4 Singles 5 CD reissues 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Recording the album

Winter Songs comprises fourteen short songs composed by Fred Frith around texts by Chris Cutler that were based on carvings on the stylobate of the Amiens Cathedral in France. The whole album was recorded and mixed simultaneously, taking 14 days from start to finish. The group adopted an approach of creating the sound first and committing it to tape immediately, instead of leaving the sound detail to post-production mixing. This method used the studio as a compositional instrument, and Etienne Conod, the studio engineer at Sunrise Studio, played an important part in this process, becoming an indispensable member of the group. ^[1]

[edit] Track listing

Side 1

1. "The Bath of Stars" (Cutler, Frith) – 1:45
2. "First Things First" (Cutler, Frith) – 2:50
3. "Gold" (Cutler, Frith) – 1:41
4. "The Summer Wheel" (Cutler, Frith) – 2:47
5. "The Slave" (Cutler, Frith) – 3:38
6. "The Hermit" (Cutler, Frith) – 2:59
7. "Rats & Monkeys" (Cutler, Frith) – 3:24

Side 2

1. "The Skeleton" (Cutler, Frith) – 3:11
2. "The Winter Wheel" (Cutler, Frith) – 3:06
3. "Man & Boy" (Cutler, Frith) – 3:21
4. "Winter/War" (Cutler, Frith) – 3:05
5. "Force" (Cutler, Frith) – 0:54
6. "3 Figures" (Cutler, Frith) – 1:51
7. "3 Wheels" (Cutler, Frith) – 3:35

[edit] Personnel

• Fred Frith – guitars, keyboards, viola, violin, xylophone
• Chris Cutler – drums, percussion, noise
• Dagmar Krause – voice

[edit] Sound and art work

• Produced by Art Bears and Etienne Conod
• Cover art by Art Bear IV

[edit] Singles

• "Rats & Monkeys" (1979, Ralph Records)

1. "Rats & Monkeys" (Cutler, Frith)
2. "Collapse" (Cutler, Frith)

[edit] CD reissues

• Winter Songs and Art Bears' next album, The World as It Is Today were reissued on a single CD in 1988, entitled 25 Songs.
• The album was also reissued in 2003 in The Art Box, a 6xCD box set of all Art Bears releases with live and unreleased tracks, plus remixes by other musicians.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Winter Songs at Allmusic
• Art Bears – An unofficial reference. Winter Songs.
• Fred Frith discography

v • d • e Art Bears Chris Cutler • Fred Frith • Dagmar Krause Peter Blegvad • Marc Hollander Studio albums Hopes and Fears (1978) • Winter Songs (1979) • The World as It Is Today (1981) Compilation albums The Art Box (2003) • Art Bears Revisited (2004) Related bands Henry Cow • News from Babel See also Rock in Opposition