Their debut album, Legend (1973), set the tone for the brave musical experimentation on the rest of their albums up through their swan song, 1979's Western Culture LP, after which the members went their separate ways, with Fred Frith and drummer Chris Cutler maintaining the highest creative profile in latter years--in the Art Bears (with Krause) and later in News From Babel (with contributions from Robert Wyatt); Frith also did a bit of time in Bill Laswell's Material, and formed the Prog supergroup Massacre as a Material offshoot. Dagmar Krause also appeared recently on the Lost in the Stars Kurt Weill tribute LP.

Henry Cow has been described as "Art Rock", with a capital "A-R", but the most telling critique of their music may be the following: "Wow, there's a lot going on here. Everyone solos at once." Take that observation and run with it!

The Prog Rock Corner selection for 8/25/96 was "Beautiful As the Moon - Terrible As An Army With Banners" from Henry Cow's 1975 LP, In Praise of Learning, a collaboration with fellow avant-garde conspirators Slapp Happy.

-Joel

Noisy (but certainly not "noise rock"), discordant, and not for feeble-hearted Prog fans. Dagmar Krause's vocals make you, umm, sit up and take notice...

Ruins, the Unofficial Henry Cow WWW Server!

Henry Cow's entry in the Gibraltar Encylopedia of Progressive Rock