The Squid's Ear Magazine
Oct 30-Nov 2, 2025: Les Disques VICTO Sale!
20 Albums @ 7.95, save 50%!



Frith, Fred / Michel Doneda (Vand'Oeuvre)

Since 2007 NEXMAP has produced "Binary Cities", a performance series bringing together artists from different cities; in 2009 they brought guitarist Fred Frith and saxophonist Michel Doneda together in San Francisco for the first time for an incredible night of improvisation.
 

Price: $15.95



Quantity:

In Stock

Quantity in Basket: None

Log In to use our Wish List
Shipping Weight: 5.00 units


EU & UK Customers:
Discogs.com can handle your VAT payments
So please order through Discogs

Sample The Album:





Product Information:

Personnel:



Fred Frith-electric guiatr

Michel Doneda-soprano saxophone, sopranino saxphone

Click an artist name above to see in-stock items for that artist.



UPC: 3426300097682

Label: Vand'Oeuvre
Catalog ID: 1440
Squidco Product Code: 21399

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2015
Country: Canada
Packaging: Jewel Case
Recorded live at Swissnex, San Francisco, California, on February 12th, 2009, by Luis Maurette.
Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

Artist Biographies

"Though the point of reference for many remains the iconic band Henry Cow, which he co-founded in 1968 and which broke up more than 30 years ago, Fred Frith has never really stood still for an instant.

In bands such as Art Bears, Massacre, Skeleton Crew, Keep the Dog, Tense Serenity, the Fred Frith Guitar Quartet, Eye to Ear, and most recently Cosa Brava, he has always held true to his roots in rock and folk music, while exploring influences that range from the literary works of Eduardo Galeano to the art installations of Cornelia Parker.

The release of the seminal Guitar Solos in 1974 enabled him to simultaneously carve out a place for himself in the international improvised music scene, not only as an acclaimed solo performer but in the company of artists as diverse as Han Bennink, Chris Cutler, Jean-Pierre Drouet, Evelyn Glennie, Ikue Mori, Louis Sclavis, Stevie Wishart, Wu Fei, Camel Zekri, John Zorn, and scores of others.

He has also developed a personal compositional language in works written for Arditti Quartet, Asko Ensemble, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Ensemble Modern, Concerto Köln, and ROVA Sax Quartet, for example. Fred has been active as a composer for dance since the early 1980s, working with choreographers Bebe Miller, François Verret, and especially long-time collaborator and friend Amanda Miller, with whom he has created a compelling body of work over the last twenty years.

His film soundtracks (for award-winning films like Thomas Riedelsheimer's Rivers and Tides and Touch the Sound, Peter Mettler's Gambling, Gods, and LSD, and Deborah Kaufman and Alan Snitow's Thirst, to name a few) won him a lifetime achievement award from Prague's "Music on Film, Film on Music" Festival (MOFFOM) in 2007. The following year he received Italy's Demetrio Stratos Prize (previously given to Diamanda Galas and Meredith Monk) for his life's work in experimental music, and in 2010 was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Huddersfield in his home county of Yorkshire.

Fred currently teaches in the Music Department at Mills College in Oakland, California (renowned for over fifty years as the epicenter of the American experimental tradition), and in the Musik Akademie in Basel, Switzerland."

-Fred Frith Website (http://www.fredfrith.com/biography.html)
10/29/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Michel Doneda (F) soprano saxophone, born in 1954, comes from the French South-West. He is a self-taught musician.

In 1980 he founded in Toulouse a reed trio: HIC ET NUNC, a group that toured quite a lot in France, playing mostly improvised music. At the same time he founded with musicians, dancers and actors a place called IREA (Institute for research and exchange between arts of improvisation).

In the following years, he participated in music projects with other artists and he became a regular guest of the Chantenay-Villedieu festival. Meeting other artists he developed a very personal approach with his music and his instrument in improvised music. During this period he played with Europeans musicians: Fred Van Hove, Phil Wachsmann, Max Eastley, Steve Beresford and Americans: John Zorn, Eliott Sharp, Elvin Jones

In 1985 he made his first record under his own name: TERRA (Nato record). At the same time he started playing regurlarly with Lê Quan Ninh, Daunik Lazro, Benat Achiary, Martine Altenburger, Barre Phillips, Paul Rogers, Tetsu Saitoh, Kazue Sawai. More recently he developed his work with Keith Rowe, Gunter Muller, Bhob Rainey, Giuseppe Ielasi and dancers as Masaki Iwana, Yukiko Nakamura, Valérie Métivier and poets, actors.

Since then, he has been very involved in the international improvised music scene, toured in Africa, Japan, Asia, USA, Canada, South America, Russia and with a lot of improvisers in Europe. In 1992 he founded in Toulouse with musicians, actors, poets, dancers the association: La Flibuste. As of today he recorded almost 50 records for European, Americans and Japanese labels."

-Timeart Ensemble Website (http://www.zeitkunst.eu/ta/)
10/29/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:
Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
Duo Recordings
Frith, Fred
Staff Picks & Recommended Items

Search for other titles on the label:
Vand'Oeuvre.


Recommended & Related Releases:
Le UN (Agnel / Battus / Chiesa / Doneda / Gauget / Marchetti / Petit)
Le Havre [VINYL + CD]
(UnRec)
A 26-member, non-hierarchical improvising ensemble recorded live over three days in Le Volcan in April 2021, where individual instrumental voices — from saxophone and guitar to rotating surfaces and electronics — merge into a shifting mass of acoustic and electric event, preserving each performer's singular identity even as the group spins into turbulent collective invention.
Doneda, Michel / Le Quan Ninh / Nuria Andorra
El Retorn De L'escolta (A La Memoria De Marianne Brull)
(Listen! Foundation (Fundacja Sluchaj!))
A powerful live performance recorded at Barcelona's L'Auditori in tribute to the late patron of free improvisation, Marianne Brull, capturing the first meeting of soprano saxophonist Michel Doneda, percussionist Lê Quan Ninh, and Barcelona-based improviser Núria Andorrà in a set of radical listening and deep interaction exploring spontaneous collective expression.
Frith, Fred / Shelley Burgon
The Life and Behavior
(Relative Pitch)
A compelling collaboration between guitarist Fred Frith and innovative harpist Shelley Burgon — known for her work with Anthony Braxton, Trevor Dunn, and Okkyung Lee — in a series of concise and precise improvisations recorded in Oakland, CA, in 2002 and 2005, as Burgon blends seamlessly with Frith's acoustic guitar to create seemingly telepathic synchronicity and an expansive sonic palette.
Cosa Brava (Frith / Parkins / Kihlstedt / Bossi / Ismaily)
Z Sides
(Klanggalerie)
Guitarist & vocalist Fred Frith leads the highly creative quintet of Zeena Parkins on keys & voice, Carla Kihlstedt on violin & voice, Mathias Bossi on drums and Shahzad Ismaily on bass, merging free improv, rock and experimental forms; drawn from live performances recorded by The Normal Conquest, this set of compositions captures the group's dynamic interplay and remarkable inventiveness.
Surplus 1980
Illusion of Consistency [CD]
(Surplus Industries)
Composed using an "exquisite corpse" method during the pandemic, where each player provided a partially complete track with instructions to expand their concept, enlisting an incredible set of musicians across the US & Europe, directed by Moe! Staiano, including Jesse Quattro, Fred Frith, Carla Kihlstedt, GW Sok, Amy X Neuburg, Darren Johnston, &c &c.
Surplus 1980
Illusion of Consistency [VINYL + CD + DOWNLOAD]
(Surplus Industries)
Composed using an "exquisite corpse" method during the pandemic, where each player provided a partially complete track with instructions to expand their concept, enlisting an incredible set of musicians across the US & Europe, directed by Moe! Staiano, including Jesse Quattro, Fred Frith, Carla Kihlstedt, GW Sok, Amy X Neuburg, Darren Johnston, &c &c.
Frith, Fred
Guitar Solos/Fifty [VINYL 2 LPs]
(Week-End Records)
While still a member of Henry Cow, guitarist Fred Frith released his first solo album simply titled Guitar Solos in 1974, a remarkable album of expression through preparations, treatments and effects; 50 years later Frith expands on that album with new compositions using a similar setup as the original, paired in this 2-LP release with the remastered original album.
Doneda, Michel / Alexander Frangenheim
Mumuration
(FMR)
An alliterative title for the expressive interactions between French soprano and sopranino saxophonist Michel Doneda and German double bassist Alexander Frangenheim, heard recently with Roger Turner on NAIL in Ulrichsberg (Concepts of Doing), and here concentrated as a duo recording studio improvisations of remarkable techniqueĘand concentrative focus through six fascinating dialogs.
Frith, Fred / Sudhu Tewari / Cenk Ergn
Lock Me Up, Lock Me Down
(Carrier Records)
Recorded thirteen years before this release and rediscovered during pandemic lockdowns, the improvising and extremely open-minded trio of Fred Frith on electric guitar, Sudhu Tewari on percussion (or as credited, "recuperated junk") and Cenk Ergun on electronics recorded these seven superb improvisations in the studio at Expression College for Digital Arts, in Emeryville, CA.
Frith, Fred And Ensemble Musiques Nouvelles
Something About This Landscape For Ensemble
(Sub Rosa)
Commissioned by and recorded during the 2018 Ars Musical Festival, Fred Frith composed this work while under the inspiration of his residency at Lou Harrison's straw-bale house in the desert at Joshua Tree, CA, then performed with the Ensemble Musiques Nouvelles, along with two very unique improvisations, one recorded during the dress rehearsal and then again in concert.
Frith, Fred / Nuria Andorra
Dancing Like Dust
(Klanggalerie )
Interdisciplinary Spanish percussionist Núria Andorrà whose background includes contemporary music and improvisation with performers including Agustín Fernández, Joëlle Léandre, Mats Gustafsson, Nate Wooley, and Joe Morris joins Fred Frith in Santa Maria de Palautordera for studio and concert recordings of eleven far-ranging dialogs of unusual and imaginative technique and concept.
Henry Cow
Glastonbury, Chaumont, Bilbao And The Lions Of Desire
(ReR Megacorp)
Expanding on the history of Henry Cow in new recordings discovered after the 19-CD Cow Redux box, including: a well-recorded concert at the the first Glastonbury Fayre in 1972, the earliest recordings of the quartet of Martin Ditcham, Fred Frith, John Greaves and Tim Hodgkinson; a 1978 grouping with Phil Minton; unrecorded compositions from 1977 in Bilbao; and a 1976 Chaumont Concert.
Frith, Fred / Susana Santos Silva
Laying Demons To Rest
(RogueArt)
An evocative album of sublime improvisation between guitarist Fred Frith and trumpeter Susana Santo Silva, recorded live for France Musique/Radio France at Motoco, Mulhouse as part of Festival Météo in 2021, the two inspiring remarkable force and assertive direction in a darkly spirited conversation of deep introspection and cathartic exorcism; magnificent!
Frith, Fred / Annie Lewandowski
Long As In Short, Walk As In Run
(Klanggalerie)
Extended and captivating improvisations using complex and extended techniques from the duo of prepared pianist Annie Lewandowski (London Improvisers Orchestra, Powerdove, Xiu Xiu) and guitarist Fred Frith (Henry Cow, Skeleton Crew, &c &c) in a thoroughly modern improvised conversation, here reissued with 11 minutes of previously unreleased material.
Skeleton Crew (Frith / Cora / Parkins)
Free Dirt (Live) [2 CDs]
(Klanggalerie)
One of the most intense and unusual of the 80s Downtown NY groups merging rock and improvisation with strong attitudes and incredible musical concepts, these live recordings, including songs never before released, are taken from American and European concerts by the trio of guitarist Fred Frith, cellist Tom Cora, and either electric harpist Zeena Parkins or reedist Dave Newhouse.
Doneda, Michel / Frederic Blondy / Tetsu Saitoh
Spring Road 16
(Relative Pitch)
After 30 years of collaboration between French saxophonist Michel Doneda and Japanese double bassist Tetsu Saitoh, this 2016 recording was to be their last due to the premature passing of Saitoh, the two heard here in a trio with pianist Frederic Blondy recorded for Radio France in a remarkable and consuming performances of fully free and often darkly savage improvisation.
Ackley, Bruce / Fred Frith / Henry Kaiser / Aram Shelton
Unexpected Twins
(Relative Pitch)
Born out of Eugene Chadbourne's Twins band concepts from the 70s, which included over time saxophonist Bruce Ackley, and guitarists Henry Kaiser, and Fred Frith; fast forward to 2018 as Ackley & Frith return to the concept with Henry Kaiser and saxophonist Aram Shelton to revisit the original approach through pieces by those artists plus Steve Lacy, Eugene Chadbourne, and John Zorn.
Leandre, Joelle
A Woman's Work [8 CD BOX SET]
(Not Two)
A thorough overview of bassist and vocalist Joelle Leandre's recent work in a boxed set of 8 CDs and a 16 page booklet of essays, photos and credits, each CD bringing a unique grouping from Les Diaboliques to duos with Mat Maneri, Fred Frith, Lauren Newton, & Jean-Luc Cappozzo, plus one solo disc and a quartet with Zlatko Kaucic, Evan Parker and Augusti Fernandez; magnificent.
Frith, Fred / Hardy Fox
A Day Hanging Dead Between Heaven And Earth
(Klanggalerie)
Fred Frith's solo career started on the West Coast Ralph Records label, home of The Residents; Frith met Residents front man Hardy Fox in passing in 1991, making recordings on a Pacific beach using Fox's Walkman, which they brought to a multi-track studio to record the basis for an ultimately unreleased album, now revived decades later as Fox rediscovered this fascinating material.
Frith, Fred / Hans Koch
You Are Here
(Intakt)
Two commanding players from the UK & European improv scene who have consistently pushed the envelope in free improvisation--electric & prepared guitarist Fred Frith and saxophonist/bass clarinetist Hans Koch--present an album of assertive interactions, merging alien environments with amazing technical playing and inexplicable approaches to sound - superb!
Frith, Fred
Live in Japan
(ReR/ Fred Records)
Fred Frith's 1982 live album of his solo concerts at various venues in Japan, 1981, performing on guitar, throat mike, violin and piano; long out of print and now remastered by Tom Dimuzio.
Art Bears
Revisited
(Recommended Records)
Slapp Happy/Henry Cow
Desperate Straights
(Recommended Records)
Cooper, Lindsay
Rags / The Golddiggers
(Recommended Records)
Frith, Derome, Tanguay, Boisen
All is bright, but it is not day
(Ambiances Magnetiques)
Explosive, psychedelic music from the trio of Jean Derome, Fred Frith, and Pierre Tanguay recorded and mixed by Myles Boisen.
Frith, Fred / Rene Lussier
Nous Autres
(Les Disques Victo)




The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

© 2002-, Squidco LLC