Guitar Solos (album)

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Guitar Solos
Studio album by Fred Frith
Released	1974
Recorded	Kaleidophon Studios, London, 1974
Genre	Avant-progressive rock
Length	37:17
Label	Caroline Records (UK)
Producer(s)	Fred Frith
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link Prog. Archives link
Fred Frith chronology
–	Guitar Solos (1974)	Gravity (1980)
CD releases
Fred Records (2002) CD release. The cover is a detail of the original Caroline Records (1974) cover.

Guitar Solos is a 1974 solo album by English guitarist, composer and improvisor Fred Frith. It was Frith's first solo album and was recorded while he was still a member of the English avant-garde rock group Henry Cow (1968-1978). The album comprises eight tracks of unaccompanied and improvised music played on prepared guitars by Frith.

When it was released, Guitar Solos was considered a landmark album ^[1] because of its innovative and experimental approach to guitar playing. The January 1983 edition of Down Beat magazine remarked that Guitar Solos "... must have stunned listeners of the day. Even today that album stands up as uniquely innovative and undeniably daring." ^[2]

Contents 1 Background 2 Recording the album 3 Track listing 4 Personnel 5 Guitar Solos 2 and 3 6 CD reissues 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Background

Henry Cow's music was very intense and demanding, and challenged the capabilities of its musicians, often forcing them to learn new techniques and play their instruments in ways never done before. Frith relished these opportunities to explore and experiment, and started pushing his guitars to the limit. He began modifying guitars and even creating his own instruments to achieve the sounds he wanted.

In 1974, Virgin Records (Henry Cow's record label) approached Frith and suggested that he make an album of guitar solos. Frith obliged and recorded the album at Kaleidophon Studios in London in four days without any overdubbing. ^[3] Virgin released it as Guitar Solos on their budget label, Caroline Records in 1974.

[edit] Recording the album

The album was recorded using a modified 1936 Gibson K-11. Frith added an extra pickup over the strings at the nut, enabling him to amplify sound from both sides of the fretted note. He then split the fretboard in two with a capo, effectively giving him two guitars, each amplified separately that he could play independently with each hand. To split the sounds further he attached alligator clips at various positions on the strings. The net result was a guitar with multiple sound sources that could be channeled to a mixer and distributed across the stereo soundscape. ^[2]

In the middle part of the track "No Birds", Frith played on two prepared guitars simultaneously, creating the timbre and range of an orchestra. He laid the two guitars flat on a table, neck to neck with the bodies of the guitars at opposite ends and the necks parallel to each other. Using volume pedals on some of the sound sources, he was able to filter sounds in and out of the mix without doing anything on the guitars. This table-top guitar setup became a standard for many of Frith's subsequent live solo performances, including those recorded on his 1982 live album Live in Japan. ^[2]

[edit] Track listing

All tracks are composed by Fred Frith.

1. "Hello Music" – 1:30
2. "Glass c/w Steel" – 5:33
3. "Ghosts" – 3:07
4. "Out of Their Heads (On Locoweed)" – 8:24
5. "Not Forgotten" – 1:42
6. "Hollow Music" – 2:38
7. "Heat c/w Moment" – 1:37
8. "No Birds" – 12:46

[edit] Personnel

• Fred Frith – Prepared guitars

[edit] Guitar Solos 2 and 3

In 1976 Caroline Records released Guitar Solos 2, another album of improvised guitar solos, but featuring four guitarists:

• Fred Frith – 2 tracks
• Derek Bailey – 3 tracks
• Hans Reichel – 3 tracks
• G.F. Fitzgerald – 1 track

In 1979 Rift Records released Guitar Solos 3, featuring improvised guitar solos from eight guitarists:

• Fred Frith – 3 tracks
• Henry Kaiser – 2 tracks
• Chip Handy – 3 tracks
• Peter Cusack – 1 track
• Keith Rowe – 1 track
• Eugene Chadbourne – 2 tracks
• Davey Williams – 1 track
• Akira Iijima – 1 track

[edit] CD reissues

• In 1991 East Side Digital re-issued Guitar Solos on CD comprising all the tracks from the original Guitar Solos, plus the Fred Frith tracks from Guitar Solos 2 and Guitar Solos 3, plus five previously unreleased tracks by Frith.
• In 2002 Fred Records issued a remastered version of the original Guitar Solos with no extra tracks.

[edit] See also

• Fred Frith's equipment

[edit] References

1. ^ Westergaard, Sean. Guitar Solos. AllMusic.com. Retrieved on 2006-11-21.
2. ^ ^{a b c} "The Frith Factor: Exploration in Sound", Down Beat magazine, January 1983.
3. ^ Frith, Fred, Guitar Solos (1974, Caroline Records), LP sleeve notes.

[edit] External links

• Guitar Solos at All Music Guide
• Fred Frith discography
• Fred Frith Discusses Guitar Solo Technique on Chris Comer Radio

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