Cosa Brava Title: the Letter Label: Intakt 204

Home , Carla Kihlstedt, Cosa Brava, Fred Frith, Zeena Parkins

CD REVIEW

ARTIST: COSA BRAVA TITLE: THE LETTER LABEL: INTAKT 204

TUNES: Soul Of The Machine / The Eyjafjallajokull Tango* / Drowning / The Wedding+ / The Letter / Slings And Arrows / Jitters / For Lars Hollmer / Emigrants / Nobody Told Me* / Common Sense / Soul Of The Machine (reprise). 61:06.

PERSONNEL: Fred Frith - g, vcl; Carla Kihlstedt - vln, b hca, vcl; Zeena Parkins - acc, kybds, Foley objects, vcl; Shahzad Ismaily - b, vcl; Matthias Bossi - d, perc, vcl, whistling, mayhem; The Norman Conquest - sound manipulation; on * add William Winant - perc.; on + add Michael Elrod - tamboura. recorded 6/1- 4/10, Faverolles, France and 8/9-11/11, Oakland, CA.

Guitarist (and sometime violinist and vocalist) Fred Frith has been putting out consistently challenging records since the early 70s. His first recordings were with the rock band Henry Cow, a group of young adventurous players and in the rock world, a band apart from most of their contemporaries. Since then Frith has amassed a mind-bogglingly extensive discography that reveals a restless musician who has explored virtually every facet of experimental music from rock to jazz to free improvisation to composing scored music interpreted by contemporary music ensembles. Frith’s most recent project is an experimental rock band called Cosa Brava, formed in 2008. Most of his recent work had been in relation to scored music for new music ensembles and free improvisation with fellow musicians. But he hadn’t had been involved with a steady band playing rock music since the early 90s. Cosa Brava grew out of a desire to explore that terrain once again. Frith assembled a quintet of sympatico musicians (including keyboardist Zeena Parkins and violinist Carla Kihlstedt who had collaborated with Frith before on prior projects) and they released their first album Ragged Atlas in 2010. The Letter is the follow up and it finds the band growing to a sextet with the addition of Shahza Ismaily on bass. This is a band that has found a sound that is uniquely theirs. The music is determinedly contemporary (use of electronics and sampling). There are frequently abrupt juxtapositions. “Eyjafjallajokull Tango” alternates gentle tango interludes with thudding four to the floor pumped up rock riffing. (Probably the most basically rock this album gets.) But elsewhere there’s also a folkish ambience to what they’re doing. What’s refreshing is that Frith is not the star of this band. He’s an integral part of the fabric of the music along with the other players. Kihlstad’s violin is frequently the most prominent voice since she usually takes the melody lines. Also mention must be made of her bass harmonica work on “For Lars Hollmer” which gives the piece a wonderful texture in the lower register. But this is a true group. While the music is by Frith the arrangements are by the band and the material is obviously worked through by all involved. While there are some songs with vocals the bulk of the material is instrumental. The odd thing is that while the sung material is not particularly tuneful, certain instrumental melodies are quite beautiful. “Common Sense” has a lovely guitar theme that is later ghosted with wordless vocals by Kihlstedt. It’s good to see Frith returning to this style of music. He’s assembled a great band and they are players that are well-suited to each other. Hopefully they’ll be gracing us with at least a couple more releases. Robert Iannapollo