The Art Bears' music was often deeply political in content, reflecting the bands' socialist leanings, and frequently experimental. Art Bears were more "song oriented" than Henry Cow, although much of the material that comprised their debut album release was actually written with the intention of being performed by Henry Cow.
Art Bears were formed during the recording of Henry Cow's last album after disagreements arose over the album's content. Frith and Cutler favoured song-oriented material, while others in the band wanted instrumental compositions. As a compromise, Frith, Cutler and Krause agreed, early in 1978, to release the songs already created on their own album, Hopes and Fears, under the name Art Bears, with the rest of Henry Cow credited as guests. The instrumental material appeared later on the final Henry Cow album, Western Culture (1979).
Hopes and Fears (1978) thus consisted of Henry Cow songs plus new Art Bears material recorded later by Frith, Cutler and Krause to complete the album. Towards the end of 1978, Art Bears returned to the studio to record their first "true" album, Winter Songs (1979). It comprised fourteen short songs composed by Frith around texts by Cutler that were based on carvings on the stylobate of the Amiens Cathedral in France.
In December 1978, Art Bears joined Rock in Opposition (RIO), and toured Europe in April and May 1979. For the tour, they added Peter Blegvad (ex-Slapp Happy, guitar, bass guitar, voice) and Marc Hollander (Aksak Maboul, keyboards, clarinet) to their line-up, and rehearsed at the Cold Storage Recording Studios in Brixton, London before leaving for Italy in late April. They performed in Italy, France, Belgium and Czechoslovakia, including an RIO festival on the 1st of May in Milan. Some of the songs recorded during the tour were later added to the album release of Hopes and Fears and The Art Box (2003), a box set of Art Bears material.
The band returned to the studio in 1980 to make one final album, The World as It Is Today (1981), before splitting up. In October 1983 Frith, Cutler and Krause reunited again, this time with Heiner Goebbels and Alfred Harth from Cassiber, Tom Cora and from Skeleton Crew, and George Lewis from the ICP Orchestra under the name "Duck and Cover". The ensemble was initially commissioned for the 1983 Moers Festival at the request of festival director Burkhard Hennen to Alfred Harth, but the group only materialised later that year after another commission by the Berlin Jazz Festival. "Duck and Cover" performed a 40-minute musical piece entitled "Berlin Programme" at the Berlin Jazz Festival in October 1983 in West Berlin, and again at the Festival des Politischen Liedes (Festival of Political Song) in East Berlin in February 1984. The second performance was recorded by Rundfunk der DDR (East German Radio) and broadcast nationally. An edited version of the broadcast was released in September 1985 on one side of the "Rē Records Quarterly Vol.1 No.2" LP record. In 1993 Frith, Cutler and Krause worked together again on a song project, "Domestic Stories" (1993) by Chris Cutler and Lutz Glandien, with saxophonist Alfred Harth. While similar to Art Bears, the addition of Glandien's electronic music made "Domestic Stories" a distinctly different album.
An Art Bears "review" took place in May 2008 at the world premiere of the Art Bears Songbook at the 25th Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville in Victoriaville, Quebec, Canada. It was performed by Cutler (drums), Frith (guitar, bass guitar, violin, piano), Jewlia Eisenberg (voice), Carla Kihlstedt (violin, voice), Zeena Parkins (keyboards, accordion), Kristin Slipp (voice) and The Norman Conquest (sound manipulation). Krause had been unable to participate and Frith and Cutler decided to rework the trio's repertoire for an expanded group, with the voices of Eisenberg, Slipp and Kihlstedt replacing Krause's "eccentric and idiomatic delivery". The project was so-named because Frith and Cutler did not want it to be seen as an Art Bears reunion. According to All About Jazz the Art Bears Songbook was "not just a highlight, but the highlight of the [five day] festival."
Peace
Art Bears Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Was loosed, and chaos
Reigned,
In England.
War!
Hunger and plague
The sower strewed
His seeds
Abroad
In England
War!
Twin pillars rose
From pits as
Broad as London is
– around them fires raged
Five Hundred miles or more,
In England
War!
The lamp of life
Blew out, Peace
Sheathed his sword,
Calm fell;
Six seconds swept
Ten million
Years
From England.
The lyrics to Art Bears' song "Peace" appear to be dealing with the concept of war and its devastating consequences. The image of an angel being "leashed" and subsequently "loosed" implies that some force or power has been unleashed which has caused chaos, destruction and war to reign in England. The repetition of the word "War!" throughout the song reinforces this theme and serves to emphasize the suffering and death that result from conflict.
The subsequent lines further underline this message by describing the ravages of war, hunger and disease on the population. The use of the metaphor "the sower strewed his seeds abroad" suggests that the destructive effects of war have far-reaching consequences that are spread throughout society. The lines "twin pillars rose / from pits as broad as London is / around them fires raged" are likely a reference to the construction of large-scale industrial buildings or factories that were a feature of late 19th Century England.
The final lines of the song are the most cryptic, but also the most powerful. "The lamp of life / blew out, Peace / sheathed his sword, / Calm fell; / Six seconds swept / ten million / Years / From England." Here, the idea of war is juxtaposed with the notion of peace, and the profound effect that the absence of war can have on society. The lines "Six seconds swept / ten million / Years" suggest that in the absence of war, time can seem to slow down or even stand still, as the weight of the past is momentarily lifted.
Line by Line Meaning
An angel, leashed
There was a peaceful existence controlled by a higher power.
Was loosed, and chaos
That peaceful existence was disrupted and caused a chaotic environment.
Reigned, In England.
This disruption happened specifically in England.
War!
This disruption was caused by war.
Hunger and plague
These were problems in addition to war.
Pursued their trades,
Hunger and plague were prevalent and persistent issues.
The sower strewed
Even amidst this chaos, the sower continued to plant seeds.
His seeds
The sower's efforts to sow crops despite the difficult circumstances.
Abroad
This was happening all throughout the land.
In England
Specifically, this was happening in England.
Twin pillars rose
Amidst this chaos, structures still emerged.
From pits as Broad as London is
These structures emerged from large pits, just as large as the city of London.
– around them fires raged
Despite their emergence, there were still raging fires all around them.
Five Hundred miles or more,
These fires spanned over a large portion of the land.
In England
Once again, this was happening in England.
War!
The cause of the fires and the chaos was war.
The lamp of life
A metaphor for life itself.
Blew out, Peace
Peace was no longer present in this chaotic environment.
Sheathed his sword,
Peace had to keep its weapons or a metaphorical sword at bay when chaos, such as war, arrived.
Calm fell;
The end of the war brought a moment of peaceful rest.
Six seconds swept
A brief period of time passed.
Ten million
A large, immeasurable number.
Years
A metaphor for time and history.
From England.
All of this happened in England and will be forever marked in its history.
Contributed by Jonathan D. Suggest a correction in the comments below.