Middle of the Moment (soundtrack)

Middle of the Moment
Middle of the Moment
Soundtrack album by Fred Frith
Released	1995
Recorded	Early 1990s, North Africa and Europe
Genre	Experimental rock; electronic music;
Length	60:40
Label	RecRec (Switzerland)
Producer	Fred Frith
Fred Frith chronology
Music for Film series chronology

Middle of the Moment is a soundtrack by English guitarist, composer and improvisor Fred Frith, of the 1995 documentary film, Middle of the Moment by Nicolas Humbert and Werner Penzel.

The film was made over a period of three years in the early 1990s, following the tuareg in North Africa and an avant garde circus troupe, Cirque O in Europe. The music comprises Frith compositions and sound collages drawn from field recordings of ambient sounds, conversations and indigenous music.

Frith describes how he created the soundtrack:^[1]

I 'travelled' through this material, formed my impressions, and created a 'sound-movie' from them, using a process analogous to that of editing a film ... My idea is more to create a parallel narrative, free to draw on music that wasn't in the film but was part of the process of making it.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	^[2]

In a review of Middle of the Moment in AllMusic, Brian Olewnick said the predominance of found sounds recorded during the making of the film makes this "[m]ore of a real soundtrack" than usual.^[2] He stated that the way Frith merges these natural sounds with his own music, which vary from "drawn-out, evocative guitar plaints to jaunty, acerbic accordion dances", works well.^[2] Olewnick added that Middle of the Moment "fits in comfortably with many of [Frith's] mature works", like his Pacifica (1998).^[2]

Writing in The Wire, Clive Bell also felt that Middle of the Moment is not a "conventional" soundtrack.^[3] He stated that the ambient sounds recorded during the making of the film blend seamlessly into the music, adding that he liked Frith's former Henry Cow band mate Tim Hodgkinson's "luxuriously squealing clarinet", and the way it "collapses into the sound of Tuareg women drumming, whooping and chasing each other."^[3]

Track listing

All music is composed by Fred Frith

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Le Jour Se Leve"	6:26
2.	"Moving"	3:55
3.	"Digging For Water"	2:34
4.	"Portrait I" / "Tam-Tam in Timia"	3:28
5.	"Le Cirque"	7:10
6.	"Robert Lax Is"	0:58
7.	"Gnawa Express Tanger"	3:01
8.	"Bell Song"	2:37
9.	"Portrait II"	1:44
10.	"Ghost Stories"	6:50
11.	"Portes Ouvertes"	3:43
12.	"Le Cirque-Oh!" / "Ghost Dance" / "Portrait III"	10:43
13.	"Le Jour S'Arrache"	2:59
14.	"Middle of the Moment (title theme)"	4:32
Total length:		1:00:40

Personnel

Fred Frith – guitar, bass, violin, keyboards, percussion
Fabrizio Appelius – accordion
Mikaela Dietl – accordion
Tim Hodgkinson – clarinet, bass clarinet, alto saxophone
Robert Lax – voice
Sandra M'Bow – voice

Tuareg

Idaman walat Akhmudan – voice
Tshanak ag Abalbal – voice
women from the Kel Iforas tribe – vocals, drumming

Cirque O

Josefina Lehmann – violin
Johann le Guillerm – accordion, voice
Bertrand Duva – Tibetan rattles
Attila Zombori – drums, percussion, guimbarde

Production

Peter Hardt – engineer

Re-issues

In 2004 Fred Records issued a remastered version of the soundtrack.

References

^ "Middle of the Moment". ReR USA. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 29 January 2007.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Olewnick, Brian. "Middle of the Moment". AllMusic.com. Retrieved 20 June 2011.
^ ^a ^b Bell, Clive (January 2024). "The Primer: Fred Frith". The Wire. London. ISSN 0952-0686. Retrieved 6 September 2024.

External links

artfilm.ch. Middle of the Moment
Middle of the Moment at Discogs (list of releases)

[1] "Middle of the Moment". ReR USA. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 29 January 2007.

[amg-2] Olewnick, Brian. "Middle of the Moment". AllMusic.com. Retrieved 20 June 2011.

[Bell-3] Bell, Clive (January 2024). "The Primer: Fred Frith". The Wire. London. ISSN 0952-0686. Retrieved 6 September 2024.

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