A Day Hanging Dead Between Heaven and Earth is a collaborative album by Fred Frith and Hardy Fox, recorded at various points between 1991 and 2017, and released on January 12th 2018 on Klanggalerie.
History[]
The second release featuring Hardy Fox under his birth name (as opposed to appearing as The Residents or Charles Bobuck), A Day Hanging Dead Between Heaven and Earth was recorded by long-time collaborators Fox and Fred Frith mostly in San Francisco in 1991, following a chance encounter at a Zen retreat in Big Sur. Despite not having socialized often (outside of Ralph Records business) the two became close and Fox started recording music and soundscapes with his Walkman.
Fox later elaborated on these recordings upon his return to San Francisco, creating a collage which he played for Frith the next time he came through San Francisco, speculating that the recordings could ultimately end up constituting a Residents/Frith collaborative project. Frith would record further Zeta MIDI violin parts for these compositions in 1991.
After editing and mixing the collaborative recordings, Fox ended up with approximately twenty minutes of music - as this was not enough for a complete album, the recordings remained shelved until Fox had left The Residents and The Cryptic Corporation and begun his solo music publishing venture Hacienda Bridge. Fox told Klanggalerie label head Walter Robotka about the recordings, and Robotka contacted Frith who was eager to hear them again.
Zeina Nasr (Frith's regular collaborator) provided new lyrics to replace the old ones which had long been lost. Frith then supplied new piano recordings derived from notebooks dating from the time of the original sessions, and the album ultimately came together some twenty-five years after its conception, in time to be released on Klanggalerie shortly after Fox's 2018 self titled debut solo album under his own name.
Track listing[]
- Prelude (1:18)
- Who Will Release Me? (3:42)
- Entr'acte 1 (0:27)
- Could Have Been (1:56)
- It's All In Place (1:38)
- Entr'acte 2 (0:45)
- How Is A Face To Replace (0:50)
- We Who Wait (2:16)
- A Little Older (1:14)
- Over Then (And Now) (2:31)
- Should See Me Out (1:06)
- Every Minute Counts (2:09)
- Song Of The Crow (4:19)
- Almost Yes Unless (1:48)