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"HiGH ▀ iNTELLiGeNCE tRoLLS"
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a r t i s t : Art Bears
t i t l e : Art Box
d a t e : 2004
l a b e l : ReR 181(/www.rermegacorp.com)
g e n r e : Avantgarde
r l s. d a t e : April/2004
t r a c k s : 85
b i t r a t e : 192kbps
s i z e : 387,9 MB
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A 6 CD box containing:
1. The three original releases, properly re-mastered, - when we
did them before, the technology was much poorer. Stunningly re
-mastered by Bob Drake from 24 bit transcriptions of the
original tapes and in newly designed Digipacks, same cover art,
of course.
2. Art Bears Revisited -A double CD of re-mixes, re-workings
and (mostly) new pieces made from Art Bears multi-track masters
by JOHN OSWALD, THE RESIDENTS, CHRISTIAN MARCLAY, FRED FRITH,
CHRIS CUTLER, BIOTA, OTOMO YOSHIHIDE/GROUND ZERO, BOB DRAKE JON
ROSE, OSSATURA, WARRIC SWINNEY/KALAHARI SURFERS, WHEN, THOMAS
DIMUZIO, ANNIE GOSFIELD ROGER KLEIR,ANDREA ROCCA, VITOR RUA,
JOCELYN ROBERT,MUSCI/ VENOSTA/ MARIANI, MASSIMO SIMONINI, HERB
HEINZ. MARTIN ARCHER, YASUSHI UTSUNOMIYA, JON LEIDECKER/WOBBLY,
STEVAN KOVACS TICKMAYER and BRIAN WOODBURY.
6 years in the making, this is an amazing catalogue of
imagination and great music.
Digi-packed with a cover art by EM Thomas, who did all three
original art bears covers and containing Art re-mixes in the
booklet as well as comprehensive information. This double also
contains Collapse from the Ralph Records single, All Hail from
the Recommended Sampler and one previously unreleased and
unfinished track completed by Fred Frith and Chris Cutler for
this release.
3. A free extra CD only available with the box (there are
reasons) containing further re-workings by John Oswald, Bob
Drake, Fred Frith, Biota, Yasushi Utsunomiya, as well as live
Art Bears tracks and a Duck and Cover cover.
4. A thick book of artwork, articles, notes, interviews and
commentary on the material, the work process, the tour and the
band in general, with photographs, documents and artwork.
Reviews:
Pitchford:
For all the renewed interest of rock music from the late 70s
and early 80s, one sect gone unheralded are art-damaged and
experimental European rock bands. A few have been given decent
due: This Heat, Pere Ubu, Suicide, and other NYC bands like DNA
were among the most forward-thinking outfits of the day, yet
possessed all the immediacy of the greatest punk bands. In
England, This Heat weren't only inspired by the same air of
change and angry resistance that fueled early punk, but were
also well-informed by an already rich history of art-rock
through bands like The Residents, Faust and Captain Beefheart.
They were certainly aware of the archetypical avant-prog group
Henry Cow, as well. Like the aforementioned bands, Henry Cow
played music that was mostly unprecedented before their
existence, and likewise shared an outsider ideal, even if they
weren't ingratiated into the same circles after punk broke.
Drummer Chris Cutler and guitarist Fred Frith were core members
of Henry Cow, who had collaborated with German singer Dagmar
Krause's band, Slapp Happy, on a pair of albums in the mid-70s.
Krause brought a highly distinctive vocal presence to the band,
one both wildly idiosyncratic (witness her various shrieks,
growls and unclassifiable utterances throughout the Art Bears
catalog) and schooled in traditional European art songs,
particularly those of Kurt Weill and Bertold Brecht. With her
voice and phrasing, she managed to single-handedly unify
lengthy works that might have otherwise lapsed into typically
arch, classically structured Cow pieces. When Krause joined the
band on a permanent basis, it was only natural that they should
gravitate towards something more like "songs."
The musicians who would become Art Bears began recording their
first album, Hopes and Fears, before the band even formally
existed. In January 1978, Cutler, Frith, Krause, Georgie Born,
Lindsay Cooper and Tim Hodgkinson went to Switzerland with the
intent to cut the fifth Henry Cow album at Etienne Conod's
Sunrise Studio. However, when it became apparent that Cutler's
shorter songs (along with Krause's vocals) weren't going to
result in anything resembling a Henry Cow album, Cutler, Frith
and Krause simply decided to rename themselves Art Bears, and
with the others, agreed to record different, instrumental
pieces for what would become Henry Cow's final album, 1979's
Western Culture. And then they decided to disband Henry Cow
altogether.
In addition to songs initially worked on as Henry Cow, the Art
Bears' core trio recorded four songs with electronics and
studio whiz David Vorhaus (of White Noise) in London. The
band's insistence on trying to push the boundaries of narrative
forms and studio technology is typical of their drive to
produce "art music," while sharing many attitudes with
concurrent punk and post-punk musicians, yet differing
completely in their response. Hopes and Fears covers everything
from suicide and world politics to witch-hunts and an allegory
of the maze-- and that's just the first four songs.
Beginning with a cover of Hans Eisler and Brecht's "On
Suicide", Hopes and Fears makes no secret of its eccentricity.
Unlike Henry Cow, group improvisation and lengthy modern-
classical asides are de-emphasized at the hands of songs and
Cutler's text-delivered messages. "The Dividing Line" is a
tense, darkly realized piece wherein Krause delivers a plea of,
"O give me the order and I'll cross the border/ I don't want to
be where I am," in reference to citizens kept under watch by a
military state. Cutler's muffled drums pound away in the
background while distorted organ and Cooper's oboe play
dissonant counterpoint. It might have been "progressive," but
it certainly wasn't "progressive rock." "In Two Minds" does
erupt into a Who-like fury at one point, but is for the most
part a bleak, understated take on folk balladry about an
adolescent committed because her parents deem "she is clearly
not herself."
Else, Hopes and Fears sounds very much of the RIO tradition
(such as it was), with angular, intricate woodwind lines and
avant-prog textures. "Terrain" is an instrumental that could
well have fit on Henry Cow's classically tinged Western
Culture, though is still clearly a song-based piece. "Moeris
Dancing" sounds similar to Belgium's Univers Zero in its use of
Eastern European folk rhythms and harmonies, but also to
latter-70s Magma as Krause doubles the instrumental melody with
a wordless, eerily wavering vocal. If this album still holds
relatively true to ideas suggested by Henry Cow and their
peers, subsequent releases would be singularly unique.
At the end of 1978, Art Bears went back to Sunrise Studios to
make their second album, Winter Songs. Cutler had a concept for
the record, which would be the first recording made from
scratch with Art Bears in mind: His words were based on bas-
reliefs (three-dimensional figures carved into wood or stone)
from the Central Porch of Amiens Cathedral. The LP jacket
contained small pictures of the carvings next to their
respective songs, though Cutler's texts range from literal
translations of the image ("The Bath of Stars", "First Things
First") to abstract or political prose ("Gold", "Three
Figures"). Frith's music, though written only shortly prior to
the recording, runs the gamut of styles from abrasive rock
("The Slave") to folk ("The Hermit") to impressionist,
experimental electronic ("Man and Boy"). However, throughout,
the band displays a more focused approach than on Hopes and
Fears, and Conod's studio techniques are in magnificent
display.
"The Bath of the Stars" begins with cathedral organ and
Krause's declaration, "He steps from a crucible, held by an
angel" (referring to the boy in the accompanying carving),
doubled by her own whisper, and sounding not unlike something
Bj÷rk might try during a particularly adventurous moment.
Frith's piano and organ clusters give the short piece a
pastoral quality all but obliterated by "First Things First",
wherein Krause's odd, reversed vocals are driven by dissonant
guitar and eventually overtaken by the sludgy, downcast pound
of drums and piano. However, even that doesn't prepare me for
the abrasive avant-hardcore of "Rats and Monkeys". There,
Krause's high-register mantra, "Rats and monkeys crowd the city
as it crumbles into ruin, walls are loosening, true, but gates
are blocked!" pierces like a siren over a battering ram of
explosive percussion and chaotic guitar. When the piece
literally explodes for a furious coda of all manner of noise
and effects, most folks will either squeal with delight or
recoil in horror. Winter Songs can be an intimidating
experience, but one that's never without a core of compassion
and morality.
The World As It Is Today, originally released in 1981, is my
favorite Art Bears release, and arguably one of the best
collections of experimental rock songs ever recorded. Despite
having to endure a particularly difficult tour of Eastern
Europe after their second album (including a near-riotous gig
in Prague), and frustrating difficulty arranging to have Krause
sing with the band on a new release, Art Bears reconvened at
Conod's studio in Switzerland during the late summer, 1980.
This time around, Cutler's texts dealt in much more overtly
political reams than on Winter Songs, doubtlessly influenced by
his opposition to the onset of Thatcherism in England, and
Reagan's America. In Cutler's view, the idealism and creative
freedom at an apex during the late 60s was subsumed by
survivalist economics and the Age of the Impersonal. His
feelings are reflected in song titles like "Truth",
"Democracy", and "The Song of the Dignity of Labour Under
Capital".
Again, Conod's way with the studio lends considerable depth to
the songs: The potentially ham-fisted protest of "The Song of
the Martyrs" (sample lyric: "Were we martyred to finish with
all forms of slavery forever, only to witness our offspring
complacent and bought off with scraps?") begins as a backdrop
of cymbals splashing in reverse and ominous rolls of thunder-
crescendos over which Krause plays the role of dead idealist
questioning the state of the world. Her voice stays mostly in
the higher range, where every syllable is as close to crying as
it is to singing. On the loping, jagged "Freedom", she sings in
chorus, "I saw multitudes forced from the land, cleared for the
wool, dispossessed, refugees who were told to be free," with
such satirical, bitter edge as to make me cringe. And then she
really lets you have it: Over a scraping, near-atonal guitar
solo from Frith, Krause lets out a shriek that spans almost
two-full minutes. Of course, a lot of old prog fans ran for the
hills, but let anyone who doubts the passion behind this music
be subject to her wail.
In addition to the three studio albums, the newly released Art
Box contains three discs of remixes, live tracks and unreleased
songs. The two-disc Art Bears Revisited set contains remixes by
folks like Otomo Yoshihide, John Oswald, The Residents, Bob
Drake, Biota, Jon Rose, and Christian Marclay. Fans will be
interested in hearing fresh interpretations of the songs,
though two discs is probably a bit much to wade through for the
uninitiated. Cutler's own Three Bear Rooms piece uses bits of
multiple songs and comes out like a beat-heavy experimental
trip-hop piece, sort of like This Heat's "24-Track Loop" slowed
down by half. Jon Leidecker/Wobbly spins "Winter/War" and
"Force" into similarly "out" dance music, though also turns a
few neat tricks with Krause's vocals. Fans will also want to
hear the live tracks on the last disc of the box, especially
"The Song of Investment Capital Overseas" from 1984, featuring
an expanded line-up including Tom Cora and trombonist George
Lewis.
Beginners may not feel so hot about laying down $70 for a box
set of a band they've never heard before, and even longtime
fans will probably be more interested in the studio albums than
the bonus material. However, this band is well deserving of the
deluxe reissue treatment: Art Bears not only spoke for the best
of the canon, but their music also sounds almost as ahead of
the curve today as it did twenty years ago. Not many others can
make such a claim, and those that can (say, Can or Kraftwerk)
are rightly revered. Art Bears were that good.
BBC:
The first thing you read in the sleevenotes to this lavish 6 CD
set are some statistics; In their existence of less than two
years, the trio of Dagmar Krause, Fred Frith and Chris Cutler
spent 40 days in the studio. In the same amount of time it
probably took Pink Floyd to get a drumkit miked up, they'd
recorded some of the most carefully crafted (and indeed
timeless) music you're ever likely to hear.
As you might expect from three former members of avant agit
progsters Henry Cow. this is confrontational stuff. Indeed, I
was requested by a colleague to remove the CD from the BBCi
Music office stereo about a minute in to the first track. In an
environment where Derek Bailey, Bartok, Blazin' Squad and even
Yes are tolerated on a daily basis, that's some achievement.
Carefully wrought dissonances, angular folk tunes, sudden
shifts in dynamics, dense layers of spectral drones, slabs of
noise, topped off with Dagmar's strange, elastic Sprechstimme;
these are the tools of the Bears' trade.
Their three albums tackle different themes; the first, Hopes
and Fears is the loosest as a concept, mixing Brechtian
observation (a cover of his "On Suicide" opens the record),
political allegory and RD Laing-inspired studies of
schizophrenia. The record had actually started life as a Henry
Cow album, but even here it's clear that Frith, Cutler and
Krause were on a different path; the songs were shorter, more
focussed, built layer by layer in the studio rather than eked
out on manuscript and in rehearsal.
Winter Songs saw the trio extend their use of the studio as
instrument into studio as compositional tool. Collages, loops,
jump-cut edits and adventurous (yet lo-fi) recording techniques
give these songs a distinctive, timeless sonic fingerprint.
Cutler's texts draw their inspiration from carvings at Amiens
Cathedral; they're economical observations of archetypal
characters, obscure mythologies and philosophical observations.
The music is powerful, unnerving, and gorgeous. Driven by
Cutler's primitivist crunch, Frith conjures foggy mellotrons,
slurred violins and guitars that range from delicate harmonics
to anguished, distorted howls.
The darkest of the three, The World As It is Today scared me
witless back then; imagine a soundtrack to an Industrial
Revolution-era apocalypse with a libretto by William Blake,
populated with pithy, nearly-pop songs (Frith's always had an
ear for a good tune) and impossibly dark bursts of dread-filled
noise. It scares me witless now too.
Coupled with these gems are three more discs stuffed with
remixes (from usual suspects like John Oswald, Christian
Marclay and The Residents), plus rarities and live tracks.
Personally I found little in the remixes to get excited about;
despite some moments of revelation, most of them seem
unnecessary at best.
The live tracks are of much more interest and prove that an
expanded Bears lineup (including Peter Blegvad) was capable of
performing songs that were never meant to be performed; Frith's
sour, ecstatic soloing on the coda to "Man and Boy" is a
highlight.
It must be said that the Bears may not be to everyone's taste;
even as a fully paid up member of the Avant Prog tendency, it
took me a long time to come to terms with them. But for the
intrepid, there are rich, lasting rewards to be reaped. I miss
them.
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Cd1-Hopes and Fears
01-Art Bears - On Suicide [01:28]
02-Art Bears - The Dividing Line [04:11]
03-Art Bears - Joan [03:06]
04-Art Bears - Maze [05:06]
05-Art Bears - In Two Minds [08:58]
06-Art Bears - Terrain [03:49]
07-Art Bears - The Tube [03:05]
08-Art Bears - The Dance [05:09]
09-Art Bears - Pirate Song [01:29]
10-Art Bears - Labyrinth [02:16]
11-Art Bears - Riddle [02:50]
12-Art Bears - Moeris Dancing [05:15]
13-Art Bears - Piers [02:12]
Cd2-Winter Songs
01-Art Bears - The Bath of Stars [01:45]
02-Art Bears - First Things First [02:50]
03-Art Bears - Gold [01:41]
04-Art Bears - The Summer Wheel [02:47]
05-Art Bears - The Slave [03:38]
06-Art Bears - The Hermit [02:59]
07-Art Bears - Rats and Monkeys [03:24]
08-Art Bears - The Skeleton [03:11]
09-Art Bears - The Winter Wheel [03:06]
10-Art Bears - Man and Boy [03:21]
11-Art Bears - Winter/War [03:05]
12-Art Bears - Force [00:54]
13-Art Bears - Three Figures [01:52]
14-Art Bears - Three Wheels [03:35]
Cd3-World As It Is Today
01-Art Bears - The Song of Investment Capital Overseas [02:38]
02-Art Bears - Truth [02:56]
03-Art Bears - Freedom (Armed) Peace [03:25]
04-Art Bears - Civilisation [02:30]
05-Art Bears - Democracy [04:52]
06-Art Bears - The Song of the Martyrs [02:22]
07-Art Bears - Law [04:09]
08-Art Bears - The Song of the Monopolists [00:51]
09-Art Bears - The Song of the Dignity of Labour under [01:48]
Capital
10-Art Bears - Albion Awake! [02:27]
11-Art Bears - Untitled [04:08]
Cd4-Art Bears Revisited 1
01-Jon Rose - The Violin in Winter [03:49]
02-Ossatura - Tranne Lacrimae (Bar Tears) [04:12]
03-Otomo Yoshihide & Ground Zero - On Suicide [05:50]
04-Massimo Simonini - Artico & Baci [03:38]
05-When & Lars Pedersen - The Tube [02:44]
06-Warrick Swinney & Kalahari Surfers - Rats and Monkeys [03:16]
(Remix)
07-John Oswald - Time/Bye [05:01]
08-Chris Cutler - Three Bear Rooms [04:49]
09-Musci, Venosta & Mariani - The World as it Hopes in [03:55]
Winter
10-The Residents - The Bath of Stars/The Skeleton [04:51]
11-Yasushi Utsunomiya - Tokusa-no-kandakara [03:02]
(91 Pieces of 'C')
12-Herb Heinz - The Skeleton [02:59]
13-Martin Archer - Long Winter [05:04]
14-Jon Leidecker & Wobbly - Winter/War/Force [04:09]
15-Fred Frith - Everything Again [04:14]
16-Jocelyn Robert - Coquelicot [07:18]
17-Art Bears - Collapse [04:51]
18-Art Bears - All Hail I [04:08]
Cd5-Art Bears Revisited 2
01-Roger Kleir - Armed Peace (Remix) [02:36]
02-Bob Drake - Song of the Monopolists [01:16]
03-Andrea Rocca - The Three Wheels (Remix) [02:45]
04-Vitor Rua - Gold [01:27]
05-Stevan Tickmayer - Monopolists Democracy [04:10]
06-Brian Woodbury - The Fourth Wheel [01:06]
07-Chris Cutler - The Three Figures [02:56]
08-Bob Drake - First Things First: The Mix That Should [04:24]
Not Be
09-Annie Gosfield - All Is Encompassed in the Night [01:35]
(Part One)
10-Annie Gosfield - All Is Encompassed in the Night [01:35]
(Part Two)
11-Annie Gosfield - All Is Encompassed in the Night [01:37]
(Part Three)
12-Biota - The Summer Mix (Part One) [04:08]
13-Biota - The Summer Mix (Part Two) [02:47]
14-Biota - The Summer Mix (Part Three) [04:10]
15-Biota - The Summer Mix (Part Four) [03:09]
16-Thomas DiMuzio - Democracy (Remix) [04:26]
17-Christian Marclay - Some Truth [04:51]
18-Art Bears - Carved in Stone [01:46]
Cd6-Extra
01-Bob Drake - And the Comedy Bears [00:42]
02-Duck and Cover - The Song of Investment Capital [03:42]
Overseas
03-John Oswald - Summer/Freedom [02:48]
04-Art Bears - The Riddle (Live) [02:21]
05-Art Bears - First Things First (Live) [01:55]
06-Art Bears - March from the Dance (Live) [01:05]
07-Art Bears - The Hermit (Live) [02:47]
08-Biota - The Winter Mix [04:35]
09-Fred Frith - Wheels [03:12]
10-Yasushi Utsunomiya - Takusa No Kandakara II [03:37]
11-Frith, Cutler, et al - Coda to Man and Boy [07:18]
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