Fred Frith
Quartets

THE REVIEW

Thursday, December 7, '95. None of my friends wanted to accompany me; after all, my musical tastes are not easily shared. So, I got in the car and drove about sixty kilometers to reach Trieste, more precisely the Miela theater where the interesting series "zattere alla deriva" was taking place, which that evening would feature the Frith Guitar Quartet.

It was right after the concert that I purchased this CD, recorded in '92, of course after getting it autographed and chatting a little with Nick Didkovsky, guitarist and leader of the interesting Doctor Nerve. The other two guitars were held by René Lussier from Quebec, where there is a noteworthy musical movement, and by Mark Stewart, an American guitarist. The latter replaces Mark Howell, who instead appears on the CD.

In the first part of the CD, we find a composition for string quartet; "Lelekovice", dedicated to the Czech violinist, Iva Bittova, performed by the Violet Wire quartet.

In the second part, we find a composition from '89, for guitar quartet called, "The usual dance towards the other flight to what is not", divided into 8 parts which can be performed in a random sequence; the one on the CD is: D-B-C-G-H-F-A-E.

It is interesting to know that this was, in those years, Frith's only written music project.

The two parts, while obviously different in timbre, resemble each other in some aspects, as the violins and guitars seem to draw inspiration from one another. We know that Frith began with the study of the violin to expand to other instruments. The compositional structures are neither simple nor obvious and, among dissonances, melodic sketches, variations, and repetitions, with melancholy and a bit of anger, make the violins close to a certain rock, certainly not traditional but already contaminated by "avant-garde" innovations.

However, much more easily assimilable remains (not all) the guitar quartet. Those who know Fred or Henry Cow know that his compositions often turn out too challenging, edgy, and cold, and even if rock music is relegated to some situations, and the guitar remains its emblem, it is here transfigured and shaped into a different language, probably influenced by contemporary classical music and all of Frith's rich musical journey.

Score for the composition, "Lelekovice": 5/10.

Score for the composition, "The usual dance towards the other flight to what is not": 7/10.