Alfred Harth

Alfred 23 Harth is a German multimedia artist, band leader, musician, and composer who mixes genres in a polystylistic manner.

Harth was born in 1949 in Kronberg im Taunus, Germany and artistically initiated by visiting a dada exhibition in 1958 in Frankfurt/Main.

With his essay "On Synaesthetics" in 1967 he opened his creative horizons to a large variety of artistic fields. He included classical string players in his free improvisation group Just Music in 1967 and opened the same year the platform "centrum freier cunst" in Frankfurt—a meeting point for live free music, art exhibitions, experimental poetry, action, and happening events.

At the age of 23 he formed the group E.M.T. with artist and pianist Nicole Van den Plas from Belgium and Sven-Ake Johansson from Sweden. E.M.T. included dada and fragmented classical works from Grieg, Schubert, and others. In 1976 he joined the loft jazz scene in New York a second time and recorded the first LP of the Duo Goebbels/Harth including works from Hanns Eisler and later Johann Sebastian Bach. The same year he started to work with video.In 1979 he began to compose for the theatre and made punk jazz. In 1982 he co-founded Cassiber and initiated Duck and Cover for which he designed a composition in 1983 and co-organized the "Marry the World By Conference Call" in 1984 at the "waschSalon gallery" in Frankfurt/Main which he maintained with his then-wife from 1984 to 1991.

In 1985 he adapted the number 23 in his name and short name A23H, see more about his art events: Alfred 23 Harth (A23H). He recorded the LP "Nouvelle Cuisine" with Gestalt et Jive, and composed a minimalist video installation "Sam Lang" and in 1986 contributed an "Amphibian Match" to the underwater concert initiated by Micky Remann in Frankfurt/Main. The same year he produced a remix album "Anything Goes". He wrote a manifest "Paradigmenwechsel" in 1988 in which he proclaims the "Instant City Happiness" I-culture. The same year he founded the post modern group Vladimir Estragon comprising Einstuerzende Neubauten drummer FM Einheit. In 1989 he created the performance "Wenn Gott tot ist, dann ist er im Himmel" with a sound collage of original interviews with Jean Baudrillard, Villem Flusser, Friedrich Kittler, and a performance with Russian poet Dmitri Prigov at the Documenta Archive in Kassel in 1990.The same year he exhibited William Burrough's "Paintings on Paper" in Frankfurt/Main and had a retrospective of his own visual arts called "2324 FU" at the "Dominikanerkloster", Frankfurt. In 1992 he met his wife, Korean artist Yi Soonjoo, and was portrayed by Moscow TV in the short film "Balance Action" which was shown at the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen.

In 1994 Harth was a member in the artist group "Delicatesy Avantgarde" with exhibitions in Gdansk and made a street installation "Wilhelm Leuschner zum Gedenken" in context with his art project "Gedankenhotel", 1993-1995, and had a retrospective "Tensides" at the "Deutsches Filmmuseum". He made a remix album "Pollock" with out-of-print Alfred Harth Lps in 1996 and in 1997-8 he re-arranged, conducted, and performed the West Side Story at the main theatre in Frankfurt. In 2000 he formed "Trio Viriditas" in New York together with Wilber Morris and Kevin Norton. In 2001-02 he had a grant at Samzie Space in Seoul and created the "LaubhuetteStudio Seoul". In 2003 he started composing a five item CD series "Mother-Of-Pearl" about Korea comprising a DVD "T_error" (2005). Since early 2004 Harth is a steady member in Otomo Yoshihide's groups and in 2007 he created "7k Oaks" together with Massimo Pupillo,Fabrizio Spera and Luca Venitucci in Rome. A23H founded many other bands and composed for film, TV, theatre, ballet, and radio plays.Currently he lives and works mostly in Korea and Japan since the year 2001.

Group formations and discography (selection)

Just Music - A23H/Thomas Cremer/Dieter Herrmann/Johannes Krämer/Thomas Stoewsand/Witold Teplitz/ Peter Stock/Franz Volhard :
* "Just Music" ECM1002, 1969
* "Born Free" CBS, 1970
E.M.T. - A23H/Sven-Åke Johansson/Nicole van den Plas :
* "Canadian Cup of Coffee" FMP, 1974
Duo Goebbels/Harth:
* "Vier Faeuste fuer Hanns Eisler" FMP, 1976 +Recommended Records,2007
* "Vom Sprengen des Gartens" FMP, 1978+Recommended Records,2007
* "Indianer fuer Morgn" Riskant, 1981
* "Zeit wird knapp" Riskant, 1981
* "Frankfurt/Peking" Riskant, 1984
* "Live in Victoriaville" victo,LP + CD, 1987
* "Goebbels Heart" evva, 1992
So-Called Left-Radical Brass Band / Sogenanntes Linksradikales Blasorchester :
* "Mit Gelben Birnen" Trikont, 1977/80 + DoubleCD in 1999
Cassiber - A23H/Christoph Anders/Chris Cutler/Heiner Goebbels :
* "Man or Monkey?" (2xLP Riskant,Germany + CD Recommended Records, U.K.)), 1982
* "Beauty and the Beast" (LP Riskant,Germany + LP and CD Recommended Records, U.K.), 1984
Duck and Cover - A23H/Tom Cora/Chris Cutler/Fred Frith/Heiner Goebbels/Dagmar Krause/George Lewis :
* "Rē Records Quarterly Vol.1 No.2" Recommended Records, 1986
Gestalt et Jive - A23H/Steve Beresford/Anton Fier/Peter Hollinger/Ferdinand Richard/Uwe Schmitt :
* "Nouvelle Cuisine" Moers Music, 1985
* "Gestalt et Jive Trio" Creative Works Records, 1986Duo Alfred 23 Harth/John Zorn :
* "Anything Goes" Creative Works Records, 1986
* "Plan Eden" Creative Works Records, 1987Duo Brötzmann/23 Harth :
* "Go-No-Go" FMP, 1987
Lindsay Cooper's OH MOSCOW - A23H/Lindsay Cooper/Hugh Hopper/Marilyn Mazur/ Phil Minton/Elvira Plenar/Sally Potter :
* "Oh Moscow!" (victo, 1989)
Vladimir Estragon - A23H/FM Einheit/Ulrike Haage/Phil Minton :
* "Three Quarks For Muster Mark" enja/tiptoe,LP +CD 1989Domestic Stories - A23H/Chris Cutler/Fred Frith/Lutz Glandien/Dagmar Krause :
* "Domestic Stories" Recommended Records,1991Trio Trabant a Roma - A23H/Lindsay Cooper/Phil Minton :
* "State Of Volgograd" FMP, 1994QuasarQuartet - A23H/Simon Nabatov/Vladimir Tarasov/Vitold Rek)
* "POPendingEYE" free flow music, 1992Imperial Hoot - A23H/Guenter Bozem/Marcel Daemgen/Christoph Korn :
* "Secrets of Development" Blue Noises,1999Trio Viriditas - A23H/Wilber Morris/Kevin Norton)
* "waxwebwind@ebroadway" clean feed, 2002
* "Live at Vision Festival VI" clean feed, 2008Otomo Yoshihide New Jazz Orchestra (ONJO) - A23H/Otomo Yoshihide/ Sachiko M/Axel Dörner/Mats Gustafsson/Toshimaru Nakamura/
Cor Fuhler/Tsugami Kenta/Aoki Taisei/Okura Masahiko/Ishikawa Ko/Unami Taku/Takara Kumiko/Kahimi Karie/Mizutani Hiroaki/Yoshigaki Yasuhiro)
* "ONJO" doubtmusic, 2005
* "Out to Lunch" doubtmusic, 2005
* ONJO live Vol.1 "series circuit" doubtmusic,2007
* ONJO live Vol.2 "parallel circuit" doubtmusic,2007Otomo Yoshihide's Invisible Songs - A23H/Otomo Yoshihide/Yoshigaki Yasuhiro/Kahimi Karie/Leonid Soybelman/Kondo Tatsuo/Nasuno Mitsuru/Kawai Shinobu/ Yamamoto Seiichi/ Jim O'Rourke
* "Sora" East Works Entertainment,2007Expedition - A23H/Chris Dahlgren/Jay Rosen/Hans Tammen
* "Expedition" ESP-Disk,2006Homura Trio - A23H/Yoriyuki Harada/Choi Sun Bae
* "Homura" off note,20077k Oaks - A23H/Luca Venitucci/Massimo Pupillo/Fabrizio Spera
* "7000 Oaks" die schachtel,2007

Discography of special projects (selection)

* "Es herrscht Uhu im Land“ JAPO/ECM,1981, - A23H/Christoph Anders/Heiner Goebbels/Paul Lovens/Rolf Riehm/Annemarie Roelofs
* "This Earth!“ ECM1264,1983, - A23H/Paul Bley/Trilok Gurtu/Maggie Nicols/Barre Phillips
* "Sweet Paris“ free flow music, 1991
* "Pollock“ Orkestrion Schallfolien, 1996, - A23H/Peter Fey/Frank Rothkamm/Elliott Sharp
* print-on-demand internet-label "recout.de“ [http://www.recout.de/mailorder_ah.htm] : 1996-2000

MOTHER-OF-PEARL-SERIES (1.-5.,made in Korea),2003-2006 :
* 1. "eShip sum“ /
* 2. "nu:clear re:actor“
* 3. DVD "T_error“ / CD "kr ./. jp“ /
* 4. "Seoul Milk“
* 5. "NUN"

References

*Christoph Wagner: "Brüche und Kontinuität",Alfred 23 Harth,in “Neue Zeitschrift für Musik”,Schott Music,Mainz,Germany, 6/2007
*Steve Lake,Paul Griffiths:”Horizons Touched - The Music of ECM” ,Granta Books, London
*Schwab,Juergen. "Der Frankfurt Sound". Frankfurt/Main: Societaetsverlag, 2004.
*Repecaud, Dominique. "Musique Action". Vandoeuvre, France: CCAM, 1993.
*Quinke, Ralph. "jazz + more". Kiel, Germany: Nieswand Verlag, 1992.

External links

* Alfred Harth biography since the year 2000 [http://www.alfredharth.blogspot.com]
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