Live in Japan (Fred Frith album)

Live in Japan is a 1982 double live album by English guitarist, composer and improvisor Fred Frith. It was recorded during an improvised solo performance tour of Japan in July 1981. The double album was a limited edition release of 1,000 by Recommended Records Japan on two LP records in a black corrugated box containing posters, artwork and booklets in English and Japanese. It was also released as two single LPs, entitled Live in Japan, Vol. 1 and Live in Japan, Vol. 2.

Contents

• Material massacre bill laswell fred frith anton fier live in japan 1984 part1 2
• Material massacre bill laswell fred frith anton fier live in japan 1984 part2 2
• Track listing
• Concert venues
• Personnel
• Production
• CD releases
• References

On Live in Japan, subtitled "The Guitars on the Table Approach", Frith continued his pioneering guitar work he began on his landmark 1974 album Guitar Solos. Comprising eight improvised pieces taken from four concerts in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka and Maebashi in 1981, Frith used an old 1961 solid body Burns guitar, built by British craftsman Jim Burns, a homemade six- and eight-string double-neck guitar created by a friend Charles Fletcher, and a battered violin. The guitars were laid flat on a table and "played" by plucking, scraping and beating the strings with a variety of found objects. Frith also wore a WW II pilot's throat microphone to amplify his periodic vocal utterances. The same microphone had been used by Frith during some of the Massacre concerts held earlier in 1981.