Recyclopedia (Outlook)

Recyclopedia - A self portrait in music and sounds

It happened in 1997:

A flash in Frans Friederich’s brain pan constituted the birth of an ambitious plan: a series of cd’s in alphabetical order, based on the art of recycling musical history through samples. The concept of ‘recycling’ was in the air at the time. This combined with the fact that storing musical history amounts to composing an encyclopedia , generated a name for Frans’ project: ‘recyclopedia’.The positioning of musical styles and sounds in their historical context was the main challenge in the first four self-produced cd’s. In my liner notes for A the catchwords were: ‘creating a history of possiblities’, ‘plundering the archives of music’, ‘quoting music’ and ‘re-experiencing the music Frans grew up with’. That’s what happens in the sample- collages and ‘interpretations’ of fragments, selected from Frans’ musical preferences through the years. These fragments are not confined to beats, runs and riffs, but often contain longer, sometimes even recognizable extracts.  

In B and D this method has been refined.

C takes a strange turn by combining three Charles’, Lindbergh, Chaplin and Ives, in an oratorium (Lindbergh), a musical entr’acte (Chaplin) and a song-cycle (Ives).

Part E is not based on sampling but on personal emotions, aroused by the death of Frans’ partner Margriet Buitenhuis, translated into music by Frans and friends (1998).

F (for Freedom) is the reproduction of an avant-garde opera, performed by the R:IP (Rotterdam Improvisation Poule [=Group]) and written by Frans and myself (words). Subject matter of this opera is Dutch social-anarchist leader Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis (1846-1919).
G (Geluid=sound) is about sounds of all sorts: guitar, sink (gootsteen), waves (golven) to name a few. S (Sound) shares this theme with G.
H (heavenly bodies) and I (India/Indonesia) combine element of world music with musical moments of trance and meditation. The latter quality, combined with sound research, characterizes T (Tampura).
J brings us into the world of Afro-Carribean jazz. This cd may be seen as a turning point where Frans tries to avoid samples in favour of acoustic music, performed by himself (keyboards and trumpet mostly) and friends. From this moment on Frans is ‘recycling himself’, performing music which had always been ‘with him’, in his musical past and present.
K (kadans ) explores cadence and rhythm, L sings the praises of love. 
N invites us to join Frans on a nostalgic voyage to his favorite pop songs, in particular love songs: Not Fade Away (Buddy Holly), Norwegian Wood (The Beatles) and more.
O takes us along around the clock, time ticks, there’s twelve songs with an exact duration of five minutes each, twelve keys.
P for protest, refers to the likes of Martin Luther King en the Beat Poets (‘make love, not war’).
A special one in the series is R, on which Peter van Cooten (NPS Radio) does a recycling job on all the whole series so far. U is a pleasant collection of trumpet-performances. 

So far Frans has issued twenty-one out of twenty-six letter-cd’s in his Recyclopedia series. Quite a feat! Who in 1997 would have thought that Frans was going to reach the U and probably finish the series?  Well, Robert Kroos for one. This sound-magician and top-notch producer believed in his former Estos Noson Pagagos-companion from the start and helped him along on half of the recordings. Keep it up, Frans, Robert and all the others involved, the Z is luring!