Nowhere, Sideshow, Thin Air (Music for Dance volume 6) is a studio album

Studio album

A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...

 by English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 guitarist

Guitarist

A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...

, composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 and improvisor

Improvisation

Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...

 Fred Frith

Fred Frith

Fred Frith is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer and improvisor.Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. Frith was also a member of Art Bears, Massacre and Skeleton Crew...

, and is the sixth of a series of Music for Dance albums he made.

Nowhere, Sideshow, Thin Air consists of three commissions by three choreographers, each sharing, according to Frith, "a certain obsession with melodic deconstruction". "Nowhere" and "Sideshow" were written by Frith for violinist Carla Kihlstedt

Carla Kihlstedt

Carla Kihlstedt is an American violinist, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist from Lancaster, Pennsylvania currently living in Oakland, California....

, and are performed by Frith, Kihlstedt and others. "Thin Air" features Frith, Hande Erdem (violin) and Threresa Wong (cello).

Track listing

All compositions by Fred Frith

Fred Frith

Fred Frith is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer and improvisor.Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. Frith was also a member of Art Bears, Massacre and Skeleton Crew...

.

1. "Nowhere" – commissioned by choreographer Paul Selwyn Norton and performed at The Hague
   The Hague
   The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
   
    in November 2000
   1. "Nowhere to Run" – 5:17
   2. "Nowhere Near" – 3:19
   3. "Nowhere to be Seen" – 3:10
   4. "Nowhere Else" – 1:43
   5. "Nowhere Can Compare" – 2:21
   6. "Getting Nowhere" – 2:27
   7. "Going Nowhere" – 2:25
   8. "Nowhere to Hide" – 3:08
2. "Sideshow" – commissioned by choreographer and director Peggy Piacenza and performed as part of the Northwest New Works Festival in 2001
   1. "Clearing the Throat" – 3:34
   2. "Show Time" – 7:24
   3. "On Or in the Wing" – 3:13
   4. "Act Two" – 3:31
   5. "Angels With Thirty Faces" – 5:17
   6. "In Which All May Have Been Resolved" – 5:27
   7. "Ghost of BB" – 1:48
   8. "Ms. Mac Drinks and Goes Home" – 1:19
3. "Thin Air" – commissioned by choreographer Uchizono Donna Norton and performed in New York in October 2007
   1. "Ladders" – 6:52
   2. "Screened" – 1:35
   3. "Plastic" – 3:01
   4. "Running" – 3:51
   5. "Falling" – 3:27
   6. "Fast Feet" – 2:29

Personnel

• Fred Frith
  Fred Frith
  Fred Frith is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer and improvisor.Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. Frith was also a member of Art Bears, Massacre and Skeleton Crew...
  
   – electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, percussion, computing, samples, radio, running, bass mbira, low-grade violin, voice
• Carla Kihlstedt
  Carla Kihlstedt
  Carla Kihlstedt is an American violinist, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist from Lancaster, Pennsylvania currently living in Oakland, California....
  
   – violin ("Nowhere", "Sideshow")
• Fred Guiliano – samples ("Sideshow")
• Gail Brand – trombone ("Sideshow")
• Hande Erdem – violin ("Thin Air")
• Theresa Wong – cello ("Thin Air")

Recording and production

• "Nowhere" recorded September – October 2000 at Guerrilla Recordings, Oakland, California
  Oakland, California
  Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
  
   by Myles Boisen
• "Sideshow" recorded January – February 2001 at Guerrilla Recordings by Myles Boisen
• "Thin Air" recorded May 2007 at Guerrilla Recordings by Myles Boisen
• Mixed 2008 at Guerrilla Recordings by Myles Boisen

External links

• Nowhere, Sideshow, Thin Air on Fred Records
  Recommended Records
  Recommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...
  
  .