The Technology of Tears

The Technology of Tears
Studio album by Fred Frith
Released	1988 (1988)
Recorded	1986–1987, United States
Genre	Avant-rock experimental
Length	82:59 (LP releases) 60:15 (CD releases)
Label	RecRec (Switzerland)
Producer	Fred Frith
Fred Frith chronology
Cheap at Half the Price (1983) The Technology of Tears (1988) The Top of His Head (1989)
Music for Dance series chronology
The Technology of Tears (1988) Allies (1996)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]

The Technology of Tears (And Other Music for Dance and Theatre) is a double album by English guitarist, composer and improvisor Fred Frith. It is the first of a series of Music for Dance albums Frith made, and is sometimes subtitled Music for Dance volume 1. It was recorded between June 1986 and April 1987, and released on a double LP and a single CD by RecRec Music (Switzerland) and on a double LP only by SST Records (United States) in 1988. It was re-issued on CD in 2008 by Fred Records (United Kingdom). All the CD releases omit the Propaganda suite (side 4 of the double LP).

The album comprises three suites:

• The Technology of Tears, commissioned by Rosalind Newman and first performed by her dance company at the Joyce Theatre, New York City in February 1987;
• Jigsaw, commissioned by the Concert Dance Company of Boston as a collaboration between Fred Frith, Rosalind Newman and Pier Voulkos and funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and the New Works Program of the Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities;
• Propaganda (omitted on the CD releases), commissioned by the Creation Production Company, written and directed by Matthew Maguire and first performed at La Mama ETC in New York City from May 1 to 24 1987.

Frith composed all the music and plays most of the instruments, with assistance from John Zorn, Tenko Ueno, Christian Marclay and Jim Staley.

The music

On The Technology of Tears, Fred Frith continues his exploration of world dance music he began on Gravity and Speechless, this time supplementing traditional instrumentation with digital technology to generate patterns, pulses and noise. Samples are used throughout, accompanied by horns, sporadic percussion and wordless vocals. The album is a mix of musique concrète, folk music and improvisation.

On the first part of the Technology of Tears suite, Frith experiments with Henry Kaiser's newly acquired synclavier, at the time the state-of-the-art sampling and processing technology. On parts two and three of the suite Frith plays mostly "low-grade" instruments with added samples by turntablist Christian Marclay. Jigsaw is a collection of dozens of musical cells, "each recorded separately in increments of between 3 and 12 measures; all at the same tempo, and in the same key".^[2] The intention was that the modules could be assembled in any order to create the final piece. The reason for this approach was that Rosalind Newman had requested that many changes be made, and with Jigsaw she could arrange the segments how she wished. In the end, she accepted Frith's demonstration sequence as the final piece.^[2]

Allmusic described the Technology of Tears suite as "... unrelenting slices of hard-edged sounds over a pulse ...", Jigsaw as "... patterns with constantly shifting accents and sub-divisions ...", and Propaganda as "... a series of brilliantly evocative soundpieces with electronics, guitar, and sound effects ...".^[1]

Track listing

All tracks composed by Fred Frith.

LP releases

Side A: The Technology of Tears

1. "Sadness, Its Bones Bleached Behind Us" – 13:05
2. "You Are What You Eat" – 7:22

Side B: The Technology of Tears (continued)

1. "You Are What You Eat (continued)" – 11:39
2. "The Palace of Laughter, The Technology of Tears" – 10:08

Side C: Jigsaw

1. "Jigsaw" – 14:39
2. "Jigsaw Coda" – 3:04

Side D: Propaganda

1. "Shelter For Them All" – 1:36
2. "A Deeper Understanding of Conflict" – 0:54
3. "The Turning of an Hourglass" – 2:04
4. "Birth of a Rebel" – 1:51
5. "Your Beautiful Corpse" – 1:17
6. "The Excellent Hyena" – 1:25
7. "The Old Man Moves a Mountain" – 1:06
8. "The Wolf Demon (part 1)" – 1:07
9. "Meditation Upon Propaganda" – 3:06
10. "Liberty" – 1:59
11. "The Relentless Landscape" – 0:59
12. "The Gaze That Sings" – 1:03
13. "The Wolf Demon (part 2)" – 1:05
14. "Rashomon" – 3:30

CD releases

The Technology of Tears

1. "Sadness, Its Bones Bleached Behind Us" – 13:18
2. "You Are What You Eat" – 18:46
3. "The Palace of Laughter, The Technology of Tears" – 10:16

Jigsaw

1. "Jigsaw" – 14:48
2. "Jigsaw Coda" – 3:07

Personnel

• Fred Frith – guitars, violin, percussion, keyboards, synclavier, voice
• John Zorn – alto saxophone (The Technology of Tears)
• Tenko Ueno – voice (The Technology of Tears)
• Christian Marclay – turntables (The Technology of Tears)
• Jim Staley – trombone (Jigsaw)

Production

• The Technology of Tears – recorded BC Studios, June 1986; Noise New York, November 1986 to January 1987; Synclavier recorded in California, June 1986 with programming
• Jigsaw – recorded Noise New York, October 1986
• Propaganda – recorded Noise New York, April 1987
• Digitally remastered at New York Digital, August 1987
• Cover images and photos – Pierre Hébert
• Cover design – Peter Bäder

References

External links

• Technology of Tears at AllMusic
• Fred Frith discography
• Dance: Rosalind Newman. The New York Times Archives, February 25, 1987 (The Technology of Tears premiere).