Laying Demons to Rest
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2023}}
{{Infobox album
| name = Laying Demons to Rest
| type = live
| artist = Fred Frith and Susana Santos Silva
| cover = Laying Demons to Rest cover.jpg
| alt = A text only cover on a plain white background: the album title in red in the centre, the two artists in black at the top, and the record label in red and black at the bottom
| released = {{Start date|2023|01}}
| recorded = 27 August 2021
| venue = Motoco, Mulhouse, France
| genre =
| length = {{Duration|m=41|s=57}}
| label = RogueArt
| producer = Anne Montaron / Radio France
| misc = {{Extra chronology
| artist = Fred Frith
| type = live
| prev_title = Cut Up the Border
| prev_year = 2020
| title = Laying Demons to Rest
| year = 2023
| next_title = Guitar Solos / Fifty
| next_year = 2024
}}
}}
Laying Demons to Rest is a 2023 live album by English guitarist Fred Frith and Portuguese trumpeter Susana Santos Silva. It consists of a single continuous track of improvised music, and was recorded live in August 2021 for Radio France as part of Festival Météo at Motoco, Mulhouse, France. The album was released by French record label RogueArt in January 2023.
Santos Silva had previously performed with Frith on Road, a live album recorded while on tour with the Fred Frith Trio in 2019.
Reception
In a review of Laying Demons to Rest in The Big Takeover, Michael Toland called the album "quite an accomplishment, one that holds attention without ever demanding it." He said that while Frith and Santos Silva make the noises generally associated with free improvisation, they "rarely ... descend into straightahead noisemaking." Instead, the duo restrain themselves and focus on "creating and sustaining a mood, keeping the atmosphere low key but urgent".
Jan Granlie wrote in a review of the album at the Norwegian website salt peanuts* that Laying Demons to Rest is an "extremely exciting, creative and beautiful record" ({{lang|no|ytterst spennende, kreativt og fin plate}}). He praised the way the duo spontaneously builds on each other's ideas and develops music that is "outstanding" and "exquisite".
A review of Laying Demons to Rest in Avant Music News stated that "despite generational, cultural, and geographic divides" between Frith and Santos Silva, they have produced an unexpected and "strangely cohesive yet aleatoric [album], one that easily stands up to multiple listens." The review said where the pair excels is when they "abandon all conventional notions of music and ... generate sounds", adding that "[t]heir dialogs gently push one another not to do more or less, but to create."
A review at Best of Jazz said that on Laying Demons to Rest, Frith and Santos Silva "connects beyond expectations." It described the album as more than just guitar-trumpet music: "The scope of textures, expressions, and impressions gathered here is just phenomenal; the dance between solo and accompaniment is so blurred and so delectable". The review stated that the album's title "really captures the atmosphere", adding that Tim Hodgkinson's "very evocative" liner notes called it "A laying to rest, an exorcism, a healing".
Track listing
{{Track listing
| title_width = 20em
| writing_width = 22em
| title1 = Laying Demons to Rest
| writer1 = Fred Frith, Susana Santos Silva
| length1 = 41:57
}}
Personnel
- Fred Frith – electric guitar
- Susana Santos Silva – trumpet
=Production and artwork=
- Patrick Muller – recording engineer
- Myles Boisen – mastering (Headless Buddha, Oakland, California)
- Anne Montaron – producer
- Radio France – producer
- Tim Hodgkinson – liner notes
- Patric Lambin – photography
- Max Schoendorff – cover design
- David Bourguignon – cover realization
References
{{reflist|refs=
{{cite AV media notes |title=Laying Demons to Rest |others=Fred Frith and Susana Santos Silva |year=2023 |last=RogueArt |author-link=RogueArt |type=CD liner notes}}
{{cite web |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/25589713 |title=Fred Frith – Susana Santos Silva – Laying Demons To Rest |website=Discogs |date=20 January 2023 |access-date=13 February 2023}}
{{cite web |last=Toland |first=Michael |url=https://bigtakeover.com/recordings/fred-frith-susana-santos-silva-laying-demons-to-rest-rogueart |title=Fred Frith/Susana Santos Silva – Laying Demons to Rest (RogueArt) |website=The Big Takeover |date=23 January 2023 |access-date=14 February 2023}}
}}
External links
- [https://roguart.com/product/laying-demons-to-rest/216 Laying Demons to Rest] at RogueArt
- {{Discogs release |id=25589713 |name=Laying Demons to Rest}}
{{Fred Frith}}
Category:2023 collaborative albums
Category:Fred Frith live albums
Category:Live avant-garde jazz albums