Winter Songs

Infobox Album | Name = Winter Songs
Type = Studio album
Artist = Art Bears


Released = 1979
Recorded = Switzerland,
November–December 1978
Genre = Avant-progressive rock
Length = 38:07
Label = Recommended (UK)
Producer = Art Bears
Etienne Conod
Reviews =
*"Allmusic" Rating|3|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:ylf3zfiheh4k link]
*Piero Scaruffi (7.5/10) [http://www.scaruffi.com/vol3/henrycow.html link]
*Review-Christgau|B+|cgurl=http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=Art+Bears| Last album = "Hopes and Fears"
(1978)
This album = "Winter Songs"
(1979)
Next album = "The World as It Is Today"
(1981)

"Winter Songs" is the second album by English avant-garde rock group Art Bears. It was recorded at Sunrise Studio in Kirchberg, Switzerland between 22 November and 5 December 1978, and was released in 1979. It was Art Bears' first album to be recorded on their own, the bulk of their first album, "Hopes and Fears" (1978) having being recorded as Henry Cow.

Recording the album

"Winter Songs" comprises fourteen short songs composed by Fred Frith around texts by Chris Cutler that were based on carvings on the stylobate of the Amiens Cathedral in France. The whole album was recorded and mixed simultaneously, taking 14 days from start to finish. The group adopted an approach of creating the sound first and committing it to tape immediately, instead of leaving the sound detail to post-production mixing. This method used the studio as a compositional instrument, and Etienne Conod, the studio engineer at Sunrise Studio, played an important part in this process, becoming an indispensable member of the group. [ cite web |url=http://www.ccutler.com/ccutler/bands/group03.shtml#artbears |title=Art Bears |work=Chris Cutler's homepage |first=Chris |last=Cutler |accessdate=2007-01-03 ]

Track listing

;Side 1
#"The Bath of Stars" (Cutler, Frith) – 1:45
#"First Things First" (Cutler, Frith) – 2:50
#"Gold" (Cutler, Frith) – 1:41
#"The Summer Wheel" (Cutler, Frith) – 2:47
#"The Slave" (Cutler, Frith) – 3:38
#"The Hermit" (Cutler, Frith) – 2:59
#"Rats & Monkeys" (Cutler, Frith) – 3:24;Side 2
#"The Skeleton" (Cutler, Frith) – 3:11
#"The Winter Wheel" (Cutler, Frith) – 3:06
#"Man & Boy" (Cutler, Frith) – 3:21
#"Winter/War" (Cutler, Frith) – 3:05
#"Force" (Cutler, Frith) – 0:54
#"3 Figures" (Cutler, Frith) – 1:51
#"3 Wheels" (Cutler, Frith) – 3:35

Personnel

*Fred Frith – guitars, keyboards, viola, violin, xylophone
*Chris Cutler – drums, percussion, noise
*Dagmar Krause – voice

ound and art work

*Produced by Art Bears and Etienne Conod
*Cover art by Art Bear IV

ingles

*"Rats & Monkeys" (1979, Ralph Records)
#"Rats & Monkeys" (Cutler, Frith)
#"Collapse" (Cutler, Frith)

CD reissues

*"Winter Songs" and Art Bears' next album, "The World as It Is Today" were reissued on a single CD in 1988, entitled "25 Songs".
*The album was also reissued in 2003 in "The Art Box", a 6xCD box set of all Art Bears releases with live and unreleased tracks, plus remixes by other musicians.

References

External links

*amg | id = 10:ylf3zfiheh4k | label = Winter Songs
* [http://artbears.findus.dhs.org/discography.html#albums_wintersongs Art Bears – An unofficial reference] . "Winter Songs".
* [http://home.arcor.de/nyds-exp-discogs/frith.htm Fred Frith discography]