Enclosure

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Enclosure was written, produced, performed and engineered by Frusciante in his Los Angeles-based recording studio. From The 2014 Press Release: “Enclosure, upon its completion, was the record which represented the achievement of all the musical goals I had been aiming at for the previous five years,” says Frusciante. “It was recorded simultaneously with Black Knights’ Medieval Chamber, and as different as the two albums appear to be, they represent one investigative creative thought process. What I learned from one fed directly into the other. Enclosure is presently my last word on the musical statement which began with PBX.” Tessa Jeffers from Premiere Guitar magazine gets to the heart of the matter below: “There’s a battle being waged in John Frusciante’s mind. In his musical world of juxtapositions and genre marriages, the traditional spars with the far-out, and mathematical equations somehow compute into expressions of feeling. The guitar will always be a bedrock instrument for the member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but his new weapons of choice are machines. “The Roland MC-202 [an early-’80s synthesizer/ sequencer] is one of my favorite instruments,” Frusciante says. “The same goes for drum machines, samplers, the computer, and other synthesizers.” “For Frusciante, the main appeal of these instruments is that once you learn to manipulate them, you can produce all types of instrumental sounds instantly. Frusciante actually has six MC-202s, which he uses in various combinations to translate guitar parts into synthesized parts. With multiple machines, he can manipulate a single guitar string per machine, and then endlessly refine each string’s sound. “’At this point I’m as fluent in programming as I am on guitar,’ he says. ‘Since I’ve learned the language and integrated it with my natural tendencies as a musician, it sometimes feels like I’m a commander in a war. Like there’s fu**ed-up shit going on, and I have to fix it. Like there are two sides arguing, and one side has to win and one side has to lose. One side has to be captured and enslaved to the other side. In some ways it’s probably not that different from playing a war video game. I read books about subjects like war because they remind me of how I think when I make music.’ “Frusciante emphasizes the fact that programmed instruments are ‘obedient to the mind’— a composer’s most important instrument.

Tracklist

1. Shining Desert
2. Sleep
3. Run
4. Stage
5. Fanfare
6. Cinch
7. Zone
8. Crowded
9. Excuses