Unrest

Unrest is an album by British avant-rock group Henry Cow, recorded at Virgin Records' Manor studios in February and March 1974. It was their second album and was released in May 1974. It was their first album including oboe and bassoon player Lindsay Cooper, who replaced saxophonist Geoff Leigh. American critic Glenn Kenny said Cooper's presence on the album grounded the band in European art music. Unrest was dedicated to Robert Wyatt and Uli Trepte. Content When Henry Cow began recording Unrest, they found they did not have enough composed material to fill the LP. Because of studio time constraints, they were forced to "improvise" and developed a "studio composition" process that involved improvising to tape, tape manipulation, loops, layering and overdubbing. The balance of the LP (tracks 2 to 5 on side 2) were "composed" in this manner. On parts of "Ruins" and "Linguaphonie", the bassoon, alto saxophone, drums and voice were recorded at half or double speed. For "Ruins", Fred Frith used Fibonacci numbers to establish beat and harmony, after reading about Hungarian composer Béla Bartók's use of the Fibonacci series. Frith said to make "Ruins" "somewhat classical-sounding" he included violin, bassoon and xylophone, but later regretted having played violin "so badly" on the track. Frith remarked, "it would be interesting to have another shot at it with [violinist] Carla Kihlstedt", but added "I doubt if I'll ever have the energy or motivation to go that far".