''The World as It Is Today'' is the third and last

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

avant-rock Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments with the basic elements of the genre. Artists aim to liberate and innovate, with ...

group A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic ide ...

Art Bears Art Bears were an England, English avant-rock Musical ensemble, group formed during the disassembly of Henry Cow in 1978 by three of its members, Chris Cutler (percussion, texts), Fred Frith (guitar, bass guitar, violin, keyboards) and Dagmar Kr ...

. It was recorded at Sunrise Studio in Kirchberg,

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

between 24 August and 7 September 1980, and was first released in 1981. For technical reasons, the original release of this album on LP vinyl record was pressed on a 12" disc at 45-

rpm Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...

, and not the usual 33⅓ rpm.

''The World as It Is Today'' comprises 11 songs, all composed by

Fred Frith Jeremy Webster "Fred" Frith (born 17 February 1949) is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser. Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock ...

with texts by

Chris Cutler Chris Cutler (born 4 January 1947) is an English percussionist, composer, lyricist and music theorist. Best known for his work with English avant-rock group Henry Cow, Cutler was also a member and drummer of other bands, including Art Bears, Ne ...

. The last song, "Albion, Awake!" was recorded as an instrumental because

Dagmar Krause Dagmar Krause (born 4 June 1950) is a German singer, best known for her work with avant-rock groups including Slapp Happy, Henry Cow, and Art Bears. She is also noted for her coverage of songs by Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill and Hanns Eisler. He ...

objected strongly to the violent nature of the lyrics. The lyrics for "Albion, Awake!", however, still appear in the booklet accompanying the album. In 2013 the lyrics were set to music for

Áine O'Dwyer Áine O'Dwyer is an Irish experimental musician, known for her live performances and recordings, which explore the aesthetics of sound and its relationship to environment, time, audience, and structure. Originally from Pallasgreen, County Limer ...

's album ''Anything Bright or Startling?''

Track listing

All tracks composed by

and

Personnel

– guitars, keyboards, viola, violin, xylophone *

– drums, electric drums, noise *

– vocals

Sound and art work

*Produced by

and Etienne Conod *Cover art by Art Bear IV

CD reissues

*In 1988 ''The World as It Is Today'' and Art Bears' previous album '' Winter Songs'' were re-issued together on a single CD entitled ''25 Songs''. *The album was also re-issued in 2004 as part of ''

The Art Box ''The Art Box'' is a six- CD box set by English avant-rock group Art Bears. It contains all Art Bears album and single releases, plus new material, including live and unreleased Art Bears tracks, and unreleased remixes and reworkings of Art B ...

'' a boxed set of six CDs, which included all the material released by the band, together with live and unreleased tracks, plus remixes by other musicians.

References

External links