Middle of the Moment (soundtrack)

Middle of the Moment is a soundtrack by English guitarist, composer and improvisor Fred Frith, of the 1995 documentary film, Middle of the Moment by Nicolas Humbert and Werner Penzel.

The film was made over a period of three years in the early 1990s, following the tuareg in North Africa and an avant garde circus troupe, Cirque O in Europe. The music comprises Frith compositions and sound collages drawn from field recordings of ambient sounds, conversations and indigenous music.

Frith describes how he created the soundtrack: I 'travelled' through this material, formed my impressions, and created a 'sound-movie' from them, using a process analogous to that of editing a film ... My idea is more to create a parallel narrative, free to draw on music that wasn't in the film but was part of the process of making it.

Personnel

 * Fred Frith – guitar, bass, violin, keyboards, percussion
 * Fabrizio Appelius – accordion
 * Mikaela Dietl – accordion
 * Tim Hodgkinson – clarinet, bass clarinet, alto saxophone
 * Robert Lax – voice
 * Sandra M'Bow – voice

Tuareg

 * Idaman walat Akhmudan – voice
 * Tshanak ag Abalbal – voice
 * women from the Kel Iforas tribe – vocals, drumming

Cirque O

 * Josefina Lehmann – violin
 * Johann le Guillerm – accordion, voice
 * Bertrand Duva – Tibetan rattles
 * Attila Zombori – drums, percussion, guimbarde

Production

 * Peter Hardt – engineer

Re-issues

 * In 2004 Fred Records issued a remastered version of the soundtrack.