Former Henry Cow guitarist Fred Frith pays homage to three giants of contemporary classical music: John Cage, Morton Feldman and Earle Brown. In his own inimitable fashion, Frith has tried to incorporate the chosen composer's own working methods into each of the three pieces that make up The Previous Evening. As he explains in the enclosed booklet regarding his John Cage homage: 'Fragments of text heard in Part 1 were taken at random from Cage's book Silence. Tape editing, the structure of the events, and dynamic markings in this section were also determined using chance methods." Performed by: Christian Kaya (clarinets), Claudio Puntin (clarinets), Heike Liss (perc.), Bernd Settelmeyer (perc.), Bernd Weber (voice) and Frith (voice & all other instruments and manipulations)
Part 1 recorded in the Spring of 1993 at Studio Grodon, Munich. Parts 2 & 3 recorded in April & June 1996 at Studio Jankowski, Stuttgart. Part 1 was premiered by London Contemporary Dance Theatre at Sadlers Wells, London in December 1993. Parts 2 & 3 were premiered by the Pretty Ugly Dance Company in 1996, at the Tiroler Landestheater, Innsbruck and Hebbel Theater, Berlin respectively. Fragments of text heard in Part 1 were taken at random from John Cage's book "Silence". Tape editing, the structure of events, and dynamic markings in this section were also determined using chance methods. "This recording is dedicated to my father, Donald Frith, whose support has been and continues to be warm and unwavering."
