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."
The Song of Investment Capital Overseas
Art Bears Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Out of town,
I empty villages
I burn their housed down.
I set up factories
Lay out plantations,
And bring prosperity to
The poorer nations.
The roads and rails
Run like cracks and
Carry me
Upon their backs.
The first stanza of Art Bears's song "The Song of Investment Capital Overseas" reveals the destructive nature that accompanies the capitalistic drive to expand business. The singer travels "out of town" for work, which leads to the destruction of villages and the displacement of its inhabitants. The line "I burn their houses down" is particularly jarring, suggesting that the singer is willing to resort to violence to achieve their goals. This behavior is reflective of the kind of exploitative relationship that often exists between developed Western nations and the countries they colonize in the name of economic gain. The singer's perspective is that their actions bring prosperity to the "poorer nations," but the cost is the loss of cultural heritage and way of life for the people living there.
Line by Line Meaning
Out of town, my work takes me
My work requires me to travel far from home.
Out of town,
I operate mainly in remote areas.
I empty villages
I displace entire communities.
I burn their houses down.
I destroy their homes and way of living.
I set up factories
I establish industrial facilities.
Lay out plantations,
I cultivate large plots of land to extract valuable resources.
And bring prosperity to
I claim to bring wealth and progress for
The poorer nations.
developing countries, while exploiting their resources and people.
The roads and rails
The transportation infrastructures.
Run like cracks and
Are worn out and in constant need of maintenance.
Carry me
enable my movement and profit-making.
Upon their backs.
Economically dependent on my exploitation of their natural and human resources.
Contributed by Dylan Y. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Allisa Bennett
Out of town, my work takes me
Out of town
I empty villages
I burn their houses down
I set up factories
Lay out plantations
And bring prosperity to
The poorer nations
The roads and rails
Run like cracks and
Carry me
Upon their backs
terrypussypower
This album is brilliant.
blobvision
It took me a bit to appreciate Dagmar Krause. I'm glad she grew on me. This song is addictive
Astaroth Belial Agraz
God bless Art Bears x)
iamdamosuzuki_
Anyone who loves this should check out the version that the Duck Amd Cover ensemble (which featured all three members of Art Bears) did in 1984
Hombre Laser
This sounds really good
Eric Anderson
The sound of the world, as it is today.
Philippe Cirse
This is an agglomeration of changing images, colors, thoughts and rhythms for the capsizing of the senses !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Allisa Bennett
Out of town, my work takes me
Out of town
I empty villages
I burn their houses down
I set up factories
Lay out plantations
And bring prosperity to
The poorer nations
The roads and rails
Run like cracks and
Carry me
Upon their backs
factory showroom
sound of the summer
Juke Wyat
Well gone & sublime