Live in Japan

After Guitar Solos, Live in Japan is probably the most compelling and representative example of Fred Frith’s “guitars on the table” approach to avant-garde music making. Around 1981 Frith toured Japan using this technique, which involved laying guitars on their backs on a table in front of him, applying objects to the strings and pickups, and then manipulating them in various ways to produce a huge variety of sounds. Originally issued as a 2-LP box set in a limited edition of 1000 copies, the master tapes of these recordings were eventually lost. A CD reissue in 2010 was made possible thanks to advanced sound restoration techniques applied to a vinyl copy.