Live in Japan (Fred Frith album)

Live in Japan is a 1982 double live album by English guitarist, composer and improvisor Fred Frith. It was recorded during an improvised solo performance tour of Japan in July 1981. The double album was a limited edition release of 1,000[1] by Recommended Records Japan[2] on two LP records in a black corrugated box containing posters, artwork and booklets in English and Japanese. It was also released as two single LPs, entitled Live in Japan, Vol. 1 and Live in Japan, Vol. 2.

For other albums of this name, see Live in Japan (disambiguation).

Live in Japan
Live album by
Fred Frith
Released1982 (1982)
RecordedJuly 1981
VenueTokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, Maebashi
Genre
Length68:34
LabelRecommended (Japan)
ProducerFred Frith
Fred Frith chronology
Speechless
(1981)		 Live in Japan
(1982)		 Voice of America
(1982)

On Live in Japan, subtitled "The Guitars on the Table Approach", Frith continued his pioneering guitar work he began on his landmark[3] 1974 album Guitar Solos. Comprising eight improvised pieces taken from four concerts in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka and Maebashi in 1981, Frith used an old 1961 solid body Burns guitar, built by British craftsman Jim Burns, a homemade six- and eight-string double-neck guitar created by a friend Charles Fletcher, and a battered violin. The guitars were laid flat on a table and "played" by plucking, scraping and beating the strings with a variety of found objects. Frith also wore a WW II pilot's throat microphone to amplify his periodic vocal utterances. The same microphone had been used by Frith during some of the Massacre concerts held earlier in 1981.

Reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[4][5]
Clouds and Clocksmixed[1]

Reviewing the Fred Records remastered edition, Beppe Colli wrote in Clouds and Clocks that he was pleased to see Live in Japan, long out-of-print, reissued on CD, and sounding just as "great" and "fresh" as the original LPs.[1] He said that here Frith sounds "quite orchestral and polyphonic, with strong contrasts in both timbre and volume".[1] Colli did complain, however, that while the digitizing process worked well, the resulting CD sounds "a bit too 'modern', and in a way, 'false'". He felt that his Live in Japan LP records "sounded more 'alive'".[1]

Track listing

All tracks by Fred Frith.

Concert venues

Recorded live in Japan at:

  • Nichifutsu Kaikan, Tokyo, 11 July 1981
  • Mainichi Kokusai Salon, Osaka, 17 July 1981
  • 80s Factory, Fukuoka, 20 July 1981
  • Kawai Hall, Maebashi, 22 July 1981

Personnel
  • Fred Frith
    • 1961 Burns Black Bison guitar
    • 1974 Charles Fletcher custom-made double-neck guitar (one fretted, one fretless)
    • anonymous "wrecked" violin
    • piano
    • WW II pilot's throat microphone
    • HH electronic SM200 stereo mixer
    • amplifier with HH digital effects unit

Production

CD releases

Live in Japan was reissued on CD on Fred Records in October 2010. None of the original booklets, posters or artwork from the two LP box were included. It was remastered and restored from a virgin vinyl copy by Tom Dimuzio.[2] The original master tapes were unobtainable.[1][6]

See also

References
  1. Colli, Beppe (8 November 2008). "Live In Japan". Clouds and Clocks. Retrieved 30 April 2012.
  2. "FRITH, FRED: Live in Japan". ReR Megacorp. Archived from the original on 15 July 2011. Retrieved 13 October 2010.
  3. Westergaard, Sean. Guitar Solos at AllMusic. Retrieved 20 June 2011.
  4. Live in Japan, Vol. 1 at AllMusic. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
  5. Live in Japan, Vol. 2 at AllMusic. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
  6. "A list of upcoming releases". Fred Records. Archived from the original on 3 April 2007. Retrieved 2 April 2007.
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