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crossing bridgesFREE IMPROVISATION MUSIC
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Crossing Bridges, documentaryBright Thoughts were commissioned by Andy Park of Channel 4 to make this documentary about 'free-improvisation' guitarists, arguably six of the best on the scene each with their unique style of experimentation with the instrument.
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Crossing Bridges - Brian GoddingExtract of live improvisation and a rare interview with Brian Godding.
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Crossing Bridges - Ron GeesinExtract of the performed piece and interview with Ron Geesin.
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Keith Rowe
“He combines the manipulation of amplifier feedback with that of violin bow, steel ruler or drumsticks on the guitar strings, which have often previously been loosened to sagging point. By such means he acquires the melodic resources of sounds like those made by flocks of birds, dogs, sirens, rain on a tin roof, buzz-saws, bubbling lava, giant insects ripping and slashing at steel doors, or electrified cats and babies”
Town Magazine
Fred Frith
“Were he born in an earlier age, Fred Frith would have lived in a monastery somewhere on the fringe of civilisation and spent fevered years over an astrolabe or pursuing the secrets of alchemy. As a product of the late 20th century, Frith will instead spend his life charting the extreme possibilities of the electric guitar”
New York Rocker
“For the most part he played his koto-like tabletop guitars, which he normally doesn’t fret. He picks, strikes and bows the strings, and pulls loose guitar strings through them. After years of working with this approach, he’s brought it into sharp focus and avoids redundant effects”
Coda Magazine
Brian Godding
"One of Britain’s finest guitarists, Brian has cheerfully straddled some disparate idioms. It’s a long way from the hard rock of the Blossom Toes to the guitar chair in Keith Tippett’s gigantic jazz orchestra Centipede, but Brian has negotiated all the ground with an ease that verges on nonchalance”
Steve Lake
Ron Geesin
“He is his own recording engineer, manager, handyman, art department, and record packer … Ron is a kind of Robinson Crusoe, on his own island of creativity, armed with a tape recorder and a power drill”
Melody Maker
“He is an accomplished composer and musician, an experimenter on the free-form edge, a poet and a comedian with a taste for the absurd”
The Guardian
Hans Reichel
“The sounds are often beguiling and the virtuosity is genuinely impressive; he has even redesigned the acoustic guitar to better exploit its coloristic potential”
Melody Maker
“He gave a phenomenal solo performance. Steering a tenuous line between free effects and conventional melodies, he juggled ideas continually, investing the whole with extraordinary technical assurance”
Melody Maker
In the 2020s
Nearly 40 years since the recording of Crossing Bridges, the legends live on, each in their different way. Here are links to explore more and indeed research the discographies. Not all artists are still with us, sadly, however they have left a legacy of fascinating experiments with sound which continues to challenge the sense of what music actually is and push our (self imposed) boundaries.
John Russell
Neil Anthony
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