The Compass, Log, and Lead

Fred Frith / Stevie Wishart / Carla Kihlstedt | Intakt Records (2006)

By Glenn Astarita

In the course of guitarist/composer and consummate improviser Fred Frith’s extensive discography, many of us have grown accustomed to being sensitized for expecting the unforeseen. With this release, recorded at a studio in Oakland, California, the trio casts a homespun edge to avant garde stylizations. Violinist Carla Kihlstedt also uses a Swedish folk instrument known as the nyckelharpa. Electronics artist Stevie Wishart boosts the session with a hurdy-gurdy, which is a string instrument that uses a rosined wheel in lieu of a bow. Frith’s improvised jazz/folk permutations steer the proceedings into an organic gala with a bevy of abstracts and roots-derived melodies. The trio generates an intimate alliance of sorts, complete with chamber-like passages and nimbly transmitted harmonic developments. And the band’s nouveau vibe complements its sense of antiquity during these twelve mesmerizing works. Moreover, Wishart’s subliminal effects-based treatments provide a mark of detection that looms as a time stamp for future generations. It substantiates the modernism, yet counterbalances the musicians’ very artistic manner of integrating a historically-minded muse into their music.

Recommended listening.

© Glenn Astarita, All About Jazz

for more information :

1. Stevie Wishart
2. All about Jazz