Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Ljubljana / Cankarjev Dom / Slovenia
Concert date: 20.02.2018
Attendance: 350
Ticket price: €20.00
Three days after his 69th birthday, cult English guitarist Jeremy Webster ‘Fred’ Frith played Klub CD in Cankarjev Dom. Back in the last century, as a member of the unforgettable Henry Cow, he played a key role in shaping avant-garde rock and the RIO (rock in opposition) scene. This eternal musical innovator and lover of free improvisation, who couldn’t care less about conventional musical forms, later played with Art Bears, Massacre and Skeleton Crew after Henry Cow broke up, and worked with names like John Zorn, Robert Wyatt, Brian Eno, Derek Bailey and Mike Patton, to name just a few. This time he put on a solo show with no accompaniment whatsoever, one that those of us in the audience won’t forget anytime soon, because Frith once again outdid himself with his unpredictable sonic experiments.
Every one of his concerts is a completely unique story. The tireless multi-instrumentalist, who besides guitar also commands keyboards, bass and violin, uses his sound gadgets to create free improvisations on the spur of the moment, so every new performance is a brand-new musical experience. He rarely plays already recorded material at his shows, like old solo pieces or songs from his past bands. He much prefers to create entirely new sonic experiments that leave nobody in the crowd indifferent, and tonight was no different. Frith came onstage barefoot, as per his long-standing habit, and sat down on a stool with his guitar in his lap, next to a table that was practically buckling under the weight of assorted sound props. These included a violin bow, gold chains, spinning tops, cups, a pot, a handful of rice, a shoe brush and clothespins.
Almost all of these props are homemade, and the guitar genius laid them across (and above) the strings as the mood struck him, with an almost fatherly tenderness. Then, with a special sampler he controlled by stepping on a foot pedal, he looped all the sounds he’d produced and mixed them into an incredibly colorful sonic collage. At times it takes on a distinctly comical edge, while at other moments it sounds almost post-apocalyptic. Either way, this is music that’s anything but suited to car radio or romantic candlelit dinners.
Frith, who, like his equally peculiar countryman Robert Fripp (King Crimson), with whom he shares a somewhat similar guitar technique, is self-taught, plays these sonic collages back as a backdrop to wildly varied guitar improvisations, without so much as blinking an eye. The man is a true master of his favorite instrument, which he demonstrated again and again with passionate, utterly unconventional solos. These were followed by yet more props piled on the guitar strings, the standout being the shuffling of rice from one cup to another. At one point he even launched into some vocal improvising that most resembled druidic incantations. There are few musical oddballs who could compare with the avant-rock/RIO patriarch, who otherwise showed no emotion during his performance except complete devotion to his sonic experiments.
Frith wasn’t the first to go at guitar strings with a violin bow or a brush. Just think of the early days of the late Frank Zappa, who once played a city bike with a violin bow on some music show. But he’s very likely the one who experimented with such tricks the most over his career, pushing free improvisation toward new forms of sonic provocation and proving that progressive, or avant-garde, rock still has plenty of room for innovation of every kind. Frith learned a lot from Zappa’s manipulations of rock music, and over the years he earned the title of ‘musical provocateur number one’ for his total rejection of conventional musical forms and any hint of commercial appeal. No wonder he has worked more than once in his career with another top-league ‘sonic provocateur’, John Zorn.
For a good hour, the great innovator Frith attacked his guitar strings from every possible side and angle with every household and peddler’s gadget imaginable, and mostly entertained us with his total contempt for any established musical form and commercial accessibility, conjuring up avant-garde soundscapes that kept swinging from the grotesque and the gloomy to the downright comical. His daughter was in the audience that night. She has been accompanying him to most of his concerts in recent years and makes sure he’s as comfortable as possible on the road. Frith’s set was short, but in every respect it lived up to the high expectations of fans of the avant-garde side of progressive rock, as well as all the curious souls who wanted to escape, if only for a day, from the noise blaring on commercial radio stations that poisons the ears and minds of today’s digitalized youth. Frith’s show at Klub CD will surely make many want to check out his latest studio effort, recorded with his band Fred Frith Trio, titled »Another Day in Fucking Paradise«.
Photo Gallery
