Exposé Online banner

Exposé Online

Not just outside the box, but denying the existence of boxes.
Covering music from the fringes since 1993.

Reviews

Henry Now — Then Again
(Bandcamp Dark Companion DC030, 2022/2025, CD / LP / DL)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2026-01-29

Then Again Cover art

Chris Cutler, John Greaves, Tim Hodgkinson, and Fred Frith. Those four names sound familiar? If not, you need to go back and re-take Progressive Rock 101. For whatever reason, maybe legal, maybe artistic, this 2022 reunion of what amounts to the original Henry Cow is now to be known as Henry Now. The back story on this recording is probably at least as interesting as the music. Recorded at Teatro President, in Piacenza, Italy on November 18, 2022, and at Sala Perriera / Cantieri Culturali alla Zisa in Palermo on November 19, 2022. Two nights only, the first for executive producer Max Marchini’s 60th birthday during the “Musiche Nuove a Piacenza Festival,” and the second night for the “SOLO per LELIO” festival organized by Curva Minore. Man, how cool do you have to be to get Henry Cow to reunite and play at your birthday party? The seven tracks of improvised music presented here are simply titled “Now Then (Parts I through VII),” and there’s no indication as to which of the parts were recorded on which night, but that’s okay, the performances are pretty much seamless, with Frith on guitar and piano, Hodgkinson on clarinet and lap steel, Greaves on bass guitar and vocals (yes, there are vocals here, in what amounts to reading spoken texts), and Cutler playing drums and percussion. There’s no “Nirvana tor Mice” or “Teenbeat” here — this is a little over an hour of free musical expression divided into seven unequal parts, and depending on your like or dislike of free improvisation, this could be an interesting diversion into unexpected musical worlds, or a quick trip through hell and back. I find most of it to be quite interesting and engaging, although there are some times that it struggles to get off the ground; but that shouldn’t surprise anyone, free improv is like that, of course — you take the brilliant moments with the confusion and it all evens out. A few things one should know: This has been released both on LP and CD, and each features its own unique mix, and of course I am reviewing this from the download, so I can’t say which mix this is (probably the CD because this is way too long for an LP). At any rate, no clues as to whether Henry Now will play together again of if this is a one-and-done. Get them while you can, these are being produced in strictly limited editions.

Filed under: New releases, 2025 releases, 2022 recordings

Related artist(s): Chris Cutler, Fred Frith, Tim Hodgkinson, John Greaves, Henry Cow / Henry Now

More info
http://darkcompanionrecords.bandcamp.com/album/then-again

 

What's new

These are the most recent changes made to artists, releases, and articles.