| That House We Lived In | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Live album by | |
| Released | August 19, 2003 [1] |
| Recorded | 1991 |
| Venue | Austria, Italy, Germany |
| Genre | Avant-rock |
| Length | 96:17 |
| Label | Fred (UK) |
| Producer | Fred Frith |
That House We Lived In is a double live album by American experimental rock band Keep the Dog. It comprises material from their final European tour in 1991 and was released by Fred Frith on his own Fred Records in 2003.
Keep the Dog (1989–1991) was Fred Frith's review band that performed live in Europe, North America and the former Soviet Union. Material for this album comes from DAT recordings of the band's final performances in Austria, Germany, and Italy in May and June 1991. Frith only considered releasing an album of their work in 2002 when Jon Leidecker spotted the tapes in Frith's office and volunteered to assemble a montage for review. [2]
Frith arranged the tracks on the two CDs to "... re-create the feeling of a typical two-set concert while including as much of our repertoire as possible within the time constraints of the format." [3] While the pieces represented a typical concert, they were in fact selected from some 20 different performances on their final tour.
The tracks on That House We Lived In are primarily Frith compositions from about a dozen of his solo, group and project albums. All are free interpretations by the band of the originals, often leading to improvisation. These include "pop" tunes like "Some Clouds Do" from Cheap at Half the Price , "dance" numbers like "Rock and a Hard Place" from Allies , "Hola, On Danse!" from the rock opera, Dropera , and two of Frith's "classics": "Norrgården Nyvla" from Gravity , and "Domaine de Langendreer" (originally "Domaine de Planousset") from Speechless . Two versions of Massacre's "Bones" are here: a take on the original, and a slow number rendering it barely recognisable as "Bones". A few of the tracks are entirely improvised and do not appear elsewhere, like "Revelation" and "That Home We Lived In".
That House We Lived In is largely an instrumental album with the occasional vocal utterances from members of the group, and Frith singing the refrain "some clouds do, some clouds don't" on "Some Clouds Do".
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [4] |
| Clouds and Clocks | favorable [5] |
In a review at AllMusic, François Couture wrote that That House We Lived In is "a must" for enthusiasts of Frith's "livelier, more vivacious writing". [4] Highlight tracks for Couture included the "lively" "Hola, On Danse!", the "darker" "Propaganda Suite", the "mad rendition" of "Some Clouds Do", and the "beautiful" "Norrgården Nyvla". [4]
Writing at Clouds and Clocks, Beppe Colli said that Keep the Dog plays Frith's material "with a freshness, assurance and creativity" that demonstrates how well the sextet work together. [5] He praised the band's repertoire, adding that "[t]ime has been kind to these melodies and arrangements, which now sound 'classic'". [5] He spoke highly of Derome, Lussier and Parkins, but questioned Hayward's "limpid rhythm framework", and said Ostertag's sampler is "indispensable but not always easy to hear". [5] Colli also questioned Frith's statement in the liner notes that he wanted to include as much as he could of the band's set "within the time constraints of the format" when another hour of music could have been accommodated on the double-CD. [5]
All tracks are written by Fred Frith, except where noted.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Revelation" (Jean Derome) / "Bones" (Frith, Bill Laswell, Fred Maher) | 4:59 |
| 2. | "Rock and a Hard Place" | 5:45 |
| 3. | "Hola, On Danse!" (Frith, Ferdinand Richard) | 2:20 |
| 4. | "Foot in Hole" | 7:38 |
| 5. | "Fanfare" / "Lizard's Tail" | 4:31 |
| 6. | "Suspended" | 2:02 |
| 7. | "Quick Sign" | 5:16 |
| 8. | "Propaganda Suite" | 8:37 |
| 9. | "Walking Song" | 5:32 |
| 10. | "Some Clouds Do" | 2:57 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "The Same Eye" / "Fives" | 5:37 |
| 2. | "No Legs" / "Slow Bones" | 7:13 |
| 3. | "That Home We Lived In" (Keep the Dog) / "Candy Machine" | 3:24 |
| 4. | "The Trace" (Frith, Henry Kaiser) | 5:18 |
| 5. | "True Love" (instrumental version) | 4:01 |
| 6. | "Instant Party" | 3:07 |
| 7. | "Small Mercy II" | 3:34 |
| 8. | "Norrgården Nyvla" | 3:13 |
| 9. | "Year of the Monkey" / "Dark as a Match" | 6:21 |
| 10. | "Domaine de Langendreer" | 4:52 |
Most of the above tracks were adapted from original recordings by Fred Frith that appeared on the following albums:
The tracks on That House We Lived In were taken from Keep the Dog's final European tour in May and June 1991, and performed at:
Jeremy Webster "Fred" Frith is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser.
Skeleton Crew was an American experimental rock and jazz group from 1982 to 1986, comprising core members Fred Frith and Tom Cora, with Zeena Parkins joining later. Best known for their live improvisation performances where they played various instruments simultaneously, they also recorded two studio albums Learn to Talk (1984) and The Country of Blinds (1986). The group drew on music and themes from a number of sources, including world music, left-wing politics and pre-recorded tapes.
Wobbly is the moniker of Jon Leidecker a San Francisco–based musician/composer of experimental electronic music.
René Lussier is a jazz guitarist based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He is a composer, guitarist, bass guitarist, percussionist, bass clarinetist, and singer. Lussier has collaborated with Fred Frith, Chris Cutler, Jean Derome, and Robert M. Lepage. He combines elements from several genres and is often referred to within the discourse of contemporary classical music or Musiques Actuelles in French.
Robert "Bob" Ostertag is a musician, writer, and political activist based in San Francisco. He has published seven books, one feature film, a DVD, twenty-six albums, and collaborated with numerous musicians.
Keep the Dog was an American-based experimental rock touring band from New York City formed in 1989 by English multi-instrumentalist, composer and improvisor Fred Frith. The sextet was conceived as a review band for performing selections of Frith's repertoire of compositions from the previous 15 years.
Speechless is a 1981 solo album by English guitarist, composer and improviser Fred Frith of the group Henry Cow. It was Frith's third solo album, and was originally released in the United States on LP record on The Residents' Ralph record label. It was the second of three solo albums Frith made for the label.
Cheap at Half the Price is a 1983 solo album by English guitarist, composer and improviser Fred Frith. It was Frith's fifth solo album, and was originally released in the United States on LP record on the Residents' Ralph record label. It was the third of three solo albums Frith made for the label.
Fred Frith appears on over 400 recordings. This is a selection from bands he was/is a member of, collaborations with other bands and musicians, and his solo recordings. The year indicates when the album was first released. For a comprehensive discography, see the Discography of Fred Frith by Michel Ramond, Patrice Roussel and Stephane Vuilleumier.
Step Across the Border is a 1990 avant-garde documentary film on English guitarist, composer and improviser Fred Frith. It was written and directed by Nicolas Humbert and Werner Penzel and released in Germany and Switzerland. The film was screened in cinemas in North America, South America, Europe and Japan, and on television in the United States, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and France. It was also released on VHS by RecRec Music (Switzerland) in 1990, and was later released on DVD by Winter & Winter Records (Germany) in 2003.
Step Across the Border is a soundtrack double album by English guitarist, composer and improvisor Fred Frith, of the 1990 avant-garde documentary film on Frith, Step Across the Border. The album features music from the film performed by Frith and other musicians, and covers ten years of Frith's musical career from 1979 to 1989.
Jean Derome is a French Canadian avant-garde saxophonist, flautist, and composer. A prominent figure in the Montreal musique actuelle scene, Derome has been a member of experimental, jazz, and rock groups, and has appeared on over 30 albums, including seven solo albums. He has written scores for over 30 films and co-founded Ambiances Magnétiques, a Canadian musical collective and independent record label.
Un Peu de l'Âme des Bandits is the second album by Belgian avant-rock band Aksak Maboul. It was recorded at Sunrise Studio in Kirchberg, Switzerland in February and August 1979, and released on LP in January 1980 on founding member Marc Hollander's Belgian independent record label, Crammed Discs. At the time the band had changed the spelling of their name to "Aqsak Maboul", and this is reflected on the album's record sleeve. When the album was re-issued on CD in 1995 the spelling of their name reverted to "Aksak Maboul".
Dropera is a concept album by Fred Frith and Ferdinand Richard, credited as "Fred & Ferd". It was their first collaborative album as a duo and was recorded in Zürich, Switzerland in August 1989. It was released on both LP and CD by RecRec Music in Switzerland in 1991. The album's songs were sung in French and a booklet of the song lyrics in French, German and English accompanied the album.
Nous Autres is a live album by Fred Frith and René Lussier recorded in October 1986 at the 4th Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville in Victoriaville, Quebec, Canada. The live mixes were later enhanced with additional material recorded by Frith and Lussier in December 1986 at a studio in Montreal, Quebec, and the resulting album was released on LP in 1987. The album was released on CD in 1992 with four additional studio tracks recorded by Frith and Lussier in January 1992 in New York City.
Volume 6: Stockholm & Göteborg is a live album by English avant-rock group Henry Cow, and is disc 6 of the 10-disc 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set. It was released in September 2008 by RēR Megacorp as a free-standing album in advance of the box set release in January 2009.
"Erk Gah" is a song written by Tim Hodgkinson for the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. "Erk Gah" was performed live by the band between 1976 and 1978, but was never recorded in the studio. Three live performances of "Erk Gah" were later released in volumes 6, 8 and 10 of The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set in January 2009; Volume 6 was released in advance of the box set in September 2008. In 1993, 15 years after Henry Cow split up, Hodgkinson recorded the composition under the title "Hold to the Zero Burn, Imagine" and released it on his second solo album, Each in Our Own Thoughts (1994).
Ragged Atlas is a studio album by Fred Frith's United States experimental rock group Cosa Brava. It was recorded in San Francisco in December 2008 and was released by Intakt Records in Switzerland on March 5, 2010. Ragged Atlas was the band's first album, and is largely instrumental with a little singing on five of the thirteen the tracks. Frith composed all the music, with lyric contributions on "Lucky Thirteen" by Rebby Sharp, a singer/guitarist Frith had worked with in Orthotonics.
Getting a Head is the debut solo album of live improvised music by experimental sound artist Bob Ostertag. It features Ostertag playing a homemade real-time sound sourcing system with Fred Frith on guitar and Charles K. Noyes on percussion. The album was released on LP by Rift Records in 1980. It was later released on CD by ReR Megacorp in 2000, and by Seeland Records in 2001. In a review of Ostertag's 2009 book, Creative Life: Music, Politics, People, and Machines, Chris Gehman described Getting a Head as "wonderfully strange and inexplicable".
Like a Melody, No Bitterness is the sixth studio album by Bob Ostertag, released on October 13, 1998 by Seeland Records.
