Clearing (Fred Frith album)

In 2000, John Zorn commissioned Frith to make a guitar solo album for Tzadik Records as a follow-up to his 1974 album, Guitar Solos. Using prepared guitars, Frith recorded Clearing in Stuttgart, Germany in July 2000 in a similar vein as Guitar Solos, revisiting areas explored on that album but not developed further at the time. He also included two additional tracks, "Gaifu Kaisei" and "This Earth is a Flower" that had been recorded earlier.

Frith used a variety of found objects when recording the album. On "Chains", Frith placed a lozenger tin on the guitar strings and dropped a chain into the tin. An acoustic sound was achieved on "Blue" by placing microphones close to the electric guitar strings. Chopsticks were jammed between the guitar strings on "Gaifu Kaisei". "Minimalism" was performed entirely by striking the guitar strings with drumsticks.

Frith dedicated four of the tracks on the album to:

• Bill Frisell – United States guitarist for the band Naked City, in which Frith played bass guitar;
• Andy Goldsworthy – British landscape sculptor and subject of the documentary film, Rivers and Tides (2001) for which Frith made the soundtrack, Rivers and Tides (2002);
• Akira Iijima – Japanese guitarist that appeared on Frith's Guitar Solos 3;
• Tomoko Itani – Japanese guitarist that appeared on a compilation of Japanese music, Welcome to Dreamland (1986) that Frith had produced.

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
Tom Hull – on the Web	B+[3]

AllMusic said this of the album:[2]

For longtime Frith fans, Clearing is a no-brainer pickup, certainly the most thoroughly enjoyable of the albums spotlighting his guitar playing in many a year. But it's also a fine introduction to the work of one of the more outstanding and influential experimental guitarists of the last 30 years and an accessible entryway for newcomers. Recommended.

Derk Richardson, writing for CT Insider, commented: "Some tracks are delicate and fragile, some are dense thickets of sonic thistles, some tiptoe with elegance and grace, some bully their way through time. However abstract or heady, none achieve anything less than absorbing grandeur."[4]

1. "White (for Andy Goldsworthy)" (Frith) – 9:28
2. "Open Ocean" (Frith) – 5:12
3. "Chains" (Frith) – 2:00
4. "The Bow Moon" (Frith) – 4:00
5. "Minimalism (for Tomoko Itani)" (Frith) – 5:07
6. "Not With Love But With Fear" (Frith) – 6:03
7. "Theatre" (Frith) – 10:09
8. "Gaifu Kaisei (in memory of Akira Iijima)" (Frith) – 2:50
9. "Road Movie" (Frith) – 2:12
10. "This Earth is a Flower" (Frith) – 3:52
11. "Blue (for Bill Frisell)" (Frith) – 3:12

• Fred Frith – prepared guitars