Fred Frith/Bob Ostertag
Public Access Synthesizer Studio (PASS)
NYC
January 7 1983
A little background.....
PASS was a loft in NY where, as the name suggests, you
could rent all sorts of advanced electronic gear, you could
also rent the space out for performances. It was very
reasonable and artist friendly.
This tape comes from a late midnight set when Frith and
Ostertag were promoting their "Voice Of America" LP.
This tape, like the one I made that night is incomplete.
The set ran about 55 minutes total and consisted of 2
pieces . This tape is missing the first few minutes, the
applause and announcements in between the pieces and
the last few minutes. I cannot locate the tape I made.
A few years back I made a combination of all the extant
tapes that was almost complete....I may have even seeded
it back on Share The Groove....I probably traded it...can't
remember, but If anyone has that copy, please seed it as
mine has eluded me for months now.
On to the music.......
The first piece is a typical non-idiomatic free improv....
Fred plays his "tabletop" homemade guitars, and Ostertag
had a giant modular Synth and was manipulating tape
loops.
The second piece was one of the most astounding
avant-garde performances I had seen up to that time. It
consists of Ostertag reading from 2 sources....one is a TV
Guide fluff piece about some soap-opera actress rescuing
cats, the other is graphic quotes from victims of political
violence in El Salvador. He reads them both straight
through and then juxtaposes the 2 articles in a sort-of
live-action version of the William Burroughs cut-up
experiments, all the while Fred clatters along with this
narrative and Ostertag manipulates his synths. The piece
built to an incredible climax which left more than one
audience member gasping and slack-jawed....quite
powerful, if not a lot of fun....unfortunately the tape runs
out about 4 or 5 minutes short of the climax.
Sybarite - Grey Sky Bright - Cut Out Shape (Temporary Residence Ltd)
Jean-Michel Jarre - Diva - Zoolook (Disques Dreyfus)
Kraftwerk - Hall Of Mirrors - Trans Europe Express (Capitol)
Alice Coltrane - Sita Ram - Universal Consciousness (Impulse)
John Cale & Terry Riley -The Hall of Mirrors in the Palace At
Versailles - Church of Anthrax (Columbia)
Aki Onda - Buddha in New York - Jukebox Buddha (Staubgold)
Tackhead - Airborn Ranger - Friendly as a Hand Grenade (TVT)
Parlet - Wolf Tickets - The Best of Parlet (Casablanca)
James Brown - Soul Power - Star Time (Polydor)
Mother Fuyer - Chick Willis (7-inch)(Collectables)
Frank Zappa - Po Jama People - One Size Fits All (Ryko)
The John Sinclair/Doctor B. Show
Recorded January 2007 in
WHRW's Control Room 2
For playlist and downloadable MP3
of this segment, click here.
