The Roulette Tapes

Fred Frith is a composer, guitarist, violinist, improviser, band leader, educator, and an influential innovator across musical genres. He has formed or collaborated in bands and ensembles including Henry Cow, Art Bears, Massacre, Skeleton Crew, John Zorn’s Naked City, Cosa Brava, and Keep The Dog. He has also worked extensively in scoring for film, dance, and theater and was a professor at Mills College from 1997-2018. In this edition Frith discusses his guitar techniques and philosophy of improvisation illustrated with excerpts from memorable appearances at Roulette such as his 1988 duo with bassist Joëlle Léandre, solos and collaborations with Danish saxophonist Lotte Anker and instrument builder Sudhu Tewari from 2024, and a 2013 ensemble presentation of his seminal 1980 album, Gravity. He appears on over 600 recordings.

Yasunao Tone (1935-2025) was a composer, sound artist, technology disrupter, theorist, and author who was a participant in the 1960s Japanese Fluxus movement, and an early influential innovator in noise and glitch music, conceptual art, chance operations, and computer-assisted composition. His work utilized optics, sensors, interactivity, and techno-abuse, most notably his technique of scratching the surface of compact disks in order to confuse the laser reader causing it to randomly select fragments of sound. He later transitioned to corrupting digital audio files using his own algorithms and software. He moved from Tokyo to New York City in 1972. This program includes performances by the artist at Roulette ranging from 1989 to 2022 tracing the evolution of his practice.

DoYeon Kim is known for her expansive and pioneering performances and compositions and for introducing the gayageum, an ancient Korean zither, into contemporary music. Trained extensively in jazz and improvisation as well as in the canon of classical Korean music including sanjo, jeongak, and modern gugak, DoYeon channels history, literature, and an ever-evolving sense of the human spirit. Here, with artist commentary, in performances at Roulette from 2023-24 with musicians Satoshi Takeishi, Tomas Fujiwara, Brandon Lopez, Yuma Uesaka, David Leon, Laura Cocks, Henry Fraser, Tyshawn Sorey, Peter Evans, Sam Minaie, Matt Maneri.

The guitarist and composer Gary Lucas, acclaimed for his technique, imagination, and fearless commitment to both tradition and innovation from his work with Captain Beefheart, Jeff Buckley, his band Gods & Monsters, scores for silent films, reviving Chinese music, and many other projects presented all around the world, and all rooted in the Blues. The program includes Lucas' 2026 commentary alongside excerpts recorded for the Roulette concert series between 1992 and 2018.

Vocalist, percussionist, composer, music director, and community facilitator Anaïs Maviel has associated her practice with the inextricable currents that move spaces and people between times and lands. One passion is to explore the use of language, and its vibratory essence in music, expanding its power as a healing and transformative act. Here we hear the artist on voice, percussion, n’goni, and keyboards in solo and ensemble works recorded at Roulette between 2019-21 alongside commentary on her background, performance practice, alchemy, and collaboration.