Pacifica (Fred Frith album)

1998 studio album by Fred Frith

Pacifica

Studio album by

Fred Frith

Released| 1998 (1998)
Recorded|

* 1995, Italy
* 1997, Chile

Genre|

* Modern classical
* experimental rock

Length| 49:08
Label| Tzadik (US)
Producer| Fred Frith
Fred Frith chronology
| The Previous Evening
(1997)  | Pacifica
(1998)  | Friends & Enemies
(1999)

|
|

Professional ratingsReview scores

Source| Rating
AllMusic| [1]

Pacifica is a studio album by English guitarist, composer and improvisor Fred Frith. It was composed by Frith in 1994 as "a meditation for 21 musicians with texts by Pablo Neruda",[2] and was performed, under the direction of Frith, by the Bolognese Eva Kant ensemble in 1995 in Modena, Italy. Texts, taken from the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda's works, were recorded by Sergio Meza in September 1997 in Santiago, Chile and were added to the music in 1998. The album was released on Tzadik Records' Composer Series in 1998.

Frith does not perform on this album.

## Background

[edit]

Pacifica was composed by Frith at Big Sur, California in a cabin overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It is "a slow meditation on life and death" [3] and reflects a series of events that occurred in Frith's life at the time, namely the death of two close friends and the birth of his daughter.[4]

Pacifica was composed for an ensemble that included prepared guitars, wind instruments, percussion, a vocalist and a performer on records, CDs and tapes. The 19 member Eva Kant ensemble (named after a 1960s comic strip heroine, Eva Kant) performed the piece, with fragments of recited text from the Death Song of the Cupeño tribe of California and the tribal names of all the original inhabitants of California. The recording was supplemented later with texts from Pablo Neruda's Soneto IX and Cien sonetos de amor, read by Sergio Meza.

## Track listing

[edit]

All tracks composed by Fred Frith.

No.| Title| Length

|
|

1.| "Part 1"| 46:22
2.| "Part 2"| 2:46

## Personnel

[edit]

* Eva Kant ensemble
* Margareth Kammerer – voice
* Stefano Zorzanello – flute, piccolo, soprano saxophone
* Daniella Cattivelli – alto saxophone
* Olivia Bignardi – clarinet, bass clarinet
* Silvia Fanti – accordion
* Salvatore Panu – trombone
* Giorgio Simbola – trombone
* Ferdinando d'Andria – trumpet, violin
* Pierangelo Galantino – violin, double bass
* Lelio Giannetto – double bass
* Claudio Lanteri – prepared guitar
* Paolo Angeli – prepared guitar
* Massimo Simonini – records, CDs, tapes
* Filomena Forleo – piano
* Nicola Zonca – marimba
* Tiziano Popoli – keyboards
* Andrea Martignoni – percussion
* Mario Martignoni – percussion
* Pino Urso – percussion
* Sergio Meza – reading texts by Pablo Neruda

### Sound

[edit]

* Eva Kant ensemble recorded by Davide Sandri at Centro Musica, Modena, Italy, July 1995
* Sergio Meza recorded by Carlos Gabezas at Studio Constantinople, Santiago, Chile, September 1997
* Mixed by Peter Hardt at Studio Jankowski, Stuttgart, Germany, February 1998
* Mastered by Allan Tucker at Foothill Digital, New York City, United States.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Tyranny, "Blue" Gene. "Pacifica". AllMusic. Retrieved 20 June 2011.
2. ^ Frith, Fred. "Fred Frith compositions". Fred Frith homepage. Archived from the original on 12 March 2011. Retrieved 23 February 2007.
3. ^ Wu, Brandon. "Fred Frith, Pacifica". Ground and Sky. Archived from the original on 10 November 2012. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
4. ^ Frith, Fred. Pacifica (Tzadik Records, 1998). CD booklet.

* v
* t
* e

Fred Frith

Studio albums|

* Guitar Solos
* Gravity
* Speechless
* Cheap at Half the Price
* Quartets
* Clearing
* Prints
* Eleventh Hour
* To Sail, to Sail
* Clearing Customs
* Guitar Solos / Fifty

| Music for Dance|

* The Technology of Tears
* Allies
* The Previous Evening
* Accidental
* The Happy End Problem
* Nowhere, Sideshow, Thin Air
* Field Days (The Amanda Loops)
* Propaganda

|

Music for Film|

* The Top of His Head
* Step Across the Border
* Middle of the Moment
* Eye to Ear
* Rivers and Tides
* Eye to Ear II
* Eye to Ear III

Composer only|

* Pacifica
* Freedom in Fragments
* Back to Life

Live albums|

* Live in Japan
* Stone, Brick, Glass, Wood, Wire
* Impur II
* Storytelling
* All Is Always Now – Live at The Stone
* Woodwork

| Composer only|

* Impur

|

Collaborations|

* With Friends Like These (with Henry Kaiser)
* Voice of America (with Bob Ostertag and Phil Minton)
* Live in Prague and Washington (with Chris Cutler)
* French Gigs (with Lol Coxhill)
* Who Needs Enemies? (with Kaiser)
* Nous Autres (with René Lussier)
* Attention Span (with Ostertag and John Zorn)
* Dropera (with Ferdinand Richard)
* Live Improvisations (with Tim Hodgkinson)
* Helter Skelter (with François-Michel Pesenti)
* Live in Trondheim, Berlin & Limoges, Vol. 2 (with Cutler)
* The Art of Memory (with Zorn)
* Traffic Continues (with Ensemble Modern)
* 2 Gentlemen in Verona (with Cutler)
* Dalaba Frith Glick Rieman Kihlstedt (with Lesli Dalaba, Eric Glick Rieman and Carla Kihlstedt)
* What Leave Behind (with Toychestra)
* 50th Birthday Celebration Volume 5 (with Zorn)
* Touch the Sound (with Evelyn Glennie)
* The Compass, Log and Lead (with Kihlstedt and Stevie Wishart)
* Duo (Victoriaville) 2005 (with Anthony Braxton)
* Ironic Universe (with Janet Feder)
* The Stone: Issue Two (with Cutler)
* The Sugar Factory (with Glennie)
* The Art of Memory II (with Zorn)
* Still Urban (with ARTE Quartett)
* The Big Picture (with ARTE Quartett)
* Late Works (with Zorn)
* Angels on the Edge of Time (with Lindsay Cooper, Gianni Gebbia and Lars Hollmer)
* Cut Up the Border (with Nicolas Humbert and Marc Parisotto)
* Laying Demons to Rest (with Susana Santos Silva)

| Compilations|

* Friends & Enemies (with Kaiser)

|

Documentaries|

* Step Across the Border
* Touch the Sound (with Glennie)
* Act of God

Related|

* Fred Frith discography
* Fred Records
* Henry Cow
* Art Bears
* Massacre
* Skeleton Crew
* Keep the Dog
* Cosa Brava
* Fred Frith Trio
* Henry Now
* The Orckestra
* Duck and Cover
* French Frith Kaiser Thompson
* Death Ambient
* Fred Frith Guitar Quartet
* Maybe Monday
* Aksak Maboul
* Material
* Naked City

* Category

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