Clearing (album)


Clearing is a guitar solo album by English guitarist, composer and improvisor Fred Frith. It was Frith's first solo guitar recording since Live in Japan and his first solo guitar studio recording since his landmark 1974 album Guitar Solos.
Clearing comprises eleven tracks of unaccompanied and improvised music played on prepared guitars by Frith. Ten of the tracks were recorded in Stuttgart, Germany in 1996 and 2000, and one was recorded live at the Konstrukcja w Procesie Festival VII in Bydgoszcz, Poland in 2000.

Background

In 2000, John Zorn commissioned Frith to make a guitar solo album for Tzadik Records as a follow-up to his 1974 album, Guitar Solos. Using prepared guitars, Frith recorded Clearing in Stuttgart, Germany in July 2000 in a similar vein as Guitar Solos, revisiting areas explored on that album but not developed further at the time. He also included two additional tracks, "Gaifu Kaisei" and "This Earth is a Flower" that had been recorded earlier.
Frith used a variety of found objects when recording the album. On "Chains", Frith placed a lozenger tin on the guitar strings and dropped a chain into the tin. An acoustic sound was achieved on "Blue" by placing microphones close to the electric guitar strings. Chopsticks were jammed between the guitar strings on "Gaifu Kaisei". "Minimalism" was performed entirely by striking the guitar strings with drumsticks.
Frith dedicated four of the tracks on the album to:
said this of the album:

Track listing

  1. "White " – 9:28
  2. "Open Ocean" – 5:12
  3. "Chains" – 2:00
  4. "The Bow Moon" – 4:00
  5. "Minimalism " – 5:07
  6. "Not With Love But With Fear" – 6:03
  7. "Theatre" – 10:09
  8. "Gaifu Kaisei " – 2:50
  9. "Road Movie" – 2:12
  10. "This Earth is a Flower" – 3:52
  11. "Blue " – 3:12

    Personnel