Fred Frith (Solo)
“A musical consciousness of rare intelligence backed up with an omnipresent sense of humor, Frith makes music that must count amongst the most powerful and original of the present time.” – Libération
Fred Frith is a songwriter, composer, improviser, and multi-instrumentalist best known for his reinvention of the electric guitar that began with the album Guitar Solos in 1974. He learned his craft both playing in rock bands, notably Henry Cow, and creating music in the recording studio. Mostly commissioned by choreographers and filmmakers, Frith’s work has also been performed by Ensemble Modern, Robert Wyatt, Arditti Quartet, Ground Zero, the BBC ScottishSymphony Orchestra, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Concerto Köln, and Rova Sax Quartet, among quite a few others. For over fifty years Frith has been enthusiastically recording and performing globally with co-conspirators of all persuasions. In recent years, Frith has been busy both as a performer (in duos with Paula Sanchez, Mariá Portugal, Núria Andorrà, and Sudhu Tewari, for example) and as composer—his opera Truth Is A four Letter Word premiered in Paris in February 2023, and he has an ongoing collaboration with the Ensemble Phoenix in Basel. Frith is the subject of Nicolas Humbert and Werner Penzel’s award-winning 1990 documentary film Step Across the Border
