Art Bears
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Template:Cleanup-date The Art Bears formed out of what was left of the disassembly of the progressive rock group Henry Cow in 1978. The band at its fullest was a trio composed of Fred Frith on guitar, bass, violin, and keyboards, Chris Cutler on percussion, electronics, and lyrics, and Dagmar Krause on vocals. Their music was often deeply political in content, reflecting the bands' socialist leanings, and frequently experimental. Art Bears were more "song oriented" than Henry Cow, although much of the material that comprised their debut album release was actually written with the intention of being performed by the latter band.
Their initial releases were:
(title - type - year)
- Hopes and Fears - LP - 1978
- Winter Songs - LP - 1979
- Rats & Monkeys/Collapse - 7" - 1979
- The World as it is Today - LP - 1981
- coda to Man and Boy * Live - screened 7" - 1981
- All Hail - flexi-7" - 1982
- The Art Box - 6 CDs Box - 2003 - brings together all Art Bears releases with live and unreleased tracks and a lot of remixes
Without Krause, Cutler and Frith played (and continue to play) concerts together. Some of it was released on record:
- Live in Prague & Washington - LP - 1983
- Limoges - EP 7" - 1983
- Live in Moscow, Prague & Washington - CD - 1990
- Live in Trondheim, Berlin, Limoges - CD - 1994
- 2 Gentlemen In Verona - CD - 2000
In 1993 the three appeared on the CD Domestic Stories by Chris Cutler and Lutz Glandien. While very similar to Art Bears, the addition of Glandien's electronic sensibility made it a distinctly different record.