This was recorded in 2011 and released on our double album Civil Disobedience in the same year. It is only album to feature our past (Chinese) and present (European) personnel on the same project...with, I admit, variable success. As with Rock In Opposition: Phase 3 in 2006, we ventured into new, previously uncharted territory, conducting experiments, going into artistic orbits from which we were not always able to land.
On our journey we managed (occasionally) to capture genuinely innovative and aesthetically valid moments...along with more than a few sonic messes which remain an embarrassment to this day. As Mr Beckett said: try again – fail again – fail better...but we prefer to make the journey and fail than stay safe and luxuriate in the comfortable mediocrity of convention, tradition and guaranteed radio play. We may well be accused of absurdity, eccentricity and pretension – we can never be accused of cowardice. The only completely successful examples of our creativity on this huge project are this work and Chinese Youth (which is available on this site).
I arranged 2 texts – a poem by Georg Trakl (whose work I have often incorporated into my music since the early days of Academy 23 back in the early 1990s) plus a few lines by Nelly Sachs – as a solo vehicle for Herr Fritze.
Fabian Fritze – Vocal, Bass Guitar, Tin Can, Plastic Foil, Keys.
Text - Georg Trakl & Nelly Sachs. Music - Fabian Fritze & Andy Martin.
If you have enjoyed this track we recommend you check out these works by UNIT on this site
A Study Of Alkaline Metals
Barbara's Bridge
Another Faded Fragment
The Quasar
Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes
A Normal Child
Donations to our finances can be made ([email protected]) if you wish to support our future work.
In 2016 we released our 30th album (Fast – Clean – Cheap) and with it an era passed. We realised it is neither necessary nor desirable to continue to issue our work on compact discs. The process is expensive and time consuming (pressing CDs, printing booklets and tray cards, buying jiffy bags, going to the post office – it’s so 1990s) so now Band Camp exists, an avenue is presented by which we can release our work to the public directly. Our projects will be obtainable from this address:
unit-united.bandcamp.com.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The paypal address for our Band Camp and Lulu sites is now [email protected].
In addition there are currently 12 books available. These are proper books in print, not fake, ersatz ‘books’ you see advertised on the internet these days as ‘e-books’. They can be purchased from lulu.com. Type ‘Andy Martin – Grange Hill’ to locate them.
[email protected]
