Fred Frith
 

is the mastermind behind Henry Cow, Art Bears, Skeleton Crew and Massacre, as well as countless collaborations (including Naked City) and solo material. He is the avant-garde guitarist, capable of weaving beautiful and intricate folk melodies as well as wrenching the most extreme timbres imaginable from the instrument. His early stuff with Henry Cow is complex partly rehearsed/part improv jazz fusion, most of his collaborations are either avant-garde folk or rock, often with more of a chamber group than rock band feel to them. His solo material ranges from modernist classical compositions to brilliantly absurd Residents-esque avant-pop. Basically, he's the man.

http://www.arciforli.it/wp-content/i...ergamo2006.jpg

He is also the focus of the experimental documentary "Step Across the Border," which is a beautiful film and extremely fitting to the music.

Recommended reading:

Infinite-Machine: Double Massacre
Untitled & Anonymous ∞: Fred Frith - Gravity

Henry Cow rules.

The Art Bears are awful...although I haven't listened in a while.

Cool guy.

I don't particularly care for The Art Bears either, the vocals are a bit too grating for me. I would highly recommend the Henry Cow/Slapp Happy collaborations, though.

Yeah that's exactly it, the vocals really put me off. Like I said though, it's been a while and it probably deserves another go, so I'll listen to it soon.

The only Henry Cow I've heard is "Unrest", but shit...what a fantastic album. I'll look into those collaborations.

I think my favorite Fred Frith album at this point is Skeleton Crew's Country of Blinds.

His CD from the John Zorn 50th Celebration is awesome; I'm rather fond of Henry Cow and Art Bears as well.

Still, I need more Frith.

anyone heard "rova orkestrova" (fred frith is a part of it along with nels cline, yoshihide, etc) anyway they do an incredible take on john coltrane's "Ascension" called "Electric Ascension"
look it up!