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Reviews

Ensemble Modern — Fred Frith: Traffic Continues
(Winter & Winter 910 044-2, 2000, CD)

by Sean McFee, Published 2000-10-01

Fred Frith: Traffic Continues Cover art

This newest Frith release, in collaboration with new music orchestra Ensemble Modern, is a fascinating concept. Traffic Continues is a number of short composed fragments, which are joined together and blended with improvisation. Therefore, the exact content of a performance is determined by the conductor and performers. The CD contains two performances of “Traffic Continues.” The first features conductor Franck Ollu, and is a daunting, dark arrangement reminiscent of Frith’s work in Henry Cow around the time of Western Culture. The heavy use of strings may also bring to mind the early work of Art Zoyd, despite being less structured and dry. The second performance is rather more chaotic. Entitled “Traffic Continues II: Gusto (for Tom Cora),” it features as a starting base a number of sampled cello parts by the late Cora recorded for a Skeleton Crew recording. Added to this are Frith’s cells of music and the Ensemble’s exploration. Joining Frith and the Ensemble on this performance are Zeena Parkins (who formed Skeleton Crew with Frith and Cora) on harp and Japanese avant artist Ikue Mori on drum machines. This performance gets closer to the avant New York scene in which Frith took part in the 80s, although parts of the final twelve-minute track actually rock with help from Mori. Neither performance is particularly approachable, however, and I would consider it the most difficult Frith album I’ve heard by a fair margin. Panacea for some, to be sure.

Filed under: New releases, Issue 20, 2000 releases

Related artist(s): Fred Frith, Zeena Parkins, Ikue Mori

 

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