Winter_Songs_(Art_Bears_album) Knowpia

Winter Songs
Winter Songs
Studio album by Art Bears
Released	1979
Recorded	November–December 1978
Studio	Sunrise Studios, Kirchberg, Switzerland
Genre	Avant-rock, post-punk
Length	38:07
Label	Recommended (UK)
Producer	Art Bears; Etienne Conod
Art Bears chronology
Singles from Winter Songs
	"Rats & Monkeys" b/w "Collapse"; Released: 1979, Ralph Records;
Alternative cover

Winter Songs is the second album by the English avant-rock group Art Bears.^[3] It was recorded at Sunrise Studio in Kirchberg, Switzerland between 22 November and 5 December 1978, and was released in 1979. It was Art Bears' first album to be recorded on their own, the bulk of their first album, Hopes and Fears (1978) having been recorded as Henry Cow. It was released by Ralph Records in the United States.^[4]

Three Wheels sample

An audio sample from "Three Wheels"

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Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	^[1]
Christgau's Record Guide	B+^[2]

Recording edit

Winter Songs comprises fourteen short songs composed by Fred Frith around texts by Chris Cutler that were based on carvings on the dado of the west facade of Amiens Cathedral in France. The whole album was recorded and mixed simultaneously, taking 14 days from start to finish. The group adopted an approach of creating the sound first and committing it to tape immediately, instead of leaving the sound detail to post-production mixing. This method used the studio as a compositional instrument, and Etienne Conod, the studio engineer at Sunrise Studio, played an important part in this process, becoming an indispensable member of the group.^[5]

Track listing edit

All tracks composed by Fred Frith and Chris Cutler.

Side 1
No.	Title	Length
1.	"The Bath of Stars"	1:45
2.	"First Things First"	2:50
3.	"Gold"	1:41
4.	"The Summer Wheel"	2:47
5.	"The Slave"	3:38
6.	"The Hermit"	2:59
7.	"Rats and Monkeys"	3:24

Side 2
No.	Title	Length
1.	"The Skeleton"	3:11
2.	"The Winter Wheel"	3:06
3.	"Man and Boy"	3:21
4.	"Winter/War"	3:05
5.	"Force"	0:54
6.	"Three Figures"	1:51
7.	"Three Wheels"	3:35

Personnel edit

Fred Frith – guitars, keyboards, viola, violin, xylophone
Chris Cutler – drums, percussion, noise
Dagmar Krause – voice

Sound and art work edit

Engineered and mixed by Etienne Conod
Produced by Art Bears and Etienne Conod
Cover art by "Art Bear IV"

CD reissues edit

Winter Songs and Art Bears' next album, The World as It Is Today were reissued on a single CD in 1988, entitled 25 Songs.
The album was also reissued in 2004 in The Art Box, a 6xCD box set of all Art Bears releases with live and unreleased tracks, plus remixes by other musicians.

References edit

^ Mills, Ted. "Winter Songs". AllMusic. Retrieved 8 November 2018.
^ Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: A". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 089919026X. Retrieved 12 September 2019 – via robertchristgau.com.
^ "News from Ralph's". Fort Lauderdale News. 1 June 1979. p. 16.
^ Goldberg, Michael (1 July 1979). "It's Weird, It's Bizarre, But Is It Music?". San Francisco Examiner. p. 34.
^ Cutler, Chris. "Art Bears". ccutler.co.uk. Retrieved 3 January 2007.

External links edit

Chris Cutler homepage.

[allmusic-1] Mills, Ted. "Winter Songs". AllMusic. Retrieved 8 November 2018.

[CG-2] Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: A". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 089919026X. Retrieved 12 September 2019 – via robertchristgau.com.

[3] "News from Ralph's". Fort Lauderdale News. 1 June 1979. p. 16.

[4] Goldberg, Michael (1 July 1979). "It's Weird, It's Bizarre, But Is It Music?". San Francisco Examiner. p. 34.

[5] Cutler, Chris. "Art Bears". ccutler.co.uk. Retrieved 3 January 2007.

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