discography

by curt golden:

The "definitive edition" is the original ep, augmented with a couple of recordings that had been left incomplete when I packed everything up and moved to Seattle in 1997, as well as bootleg recordings of a Desperate Measures performing a couple of the songs. Downloads are available on Bandcamp.

If you are interested in the deluxe package, use the contact form.

as a member of a group:

2004
Atomic Chamber Ensemble
King For A Day
Curt Golden: Guitar, Composer

A few years down the line. Lots of performing. Lots of writing. Lot's of exploring. Seattle Guitar Circle morphed into ACE. This recording features compositions by Bob Williams, Dean Jensen, and myself ("Bicycling to Afghanistan", "Flying Home", "Vulcanization", "Trapiche", and a collaborations with Bob Williams on "Why Be?"). Plus, Derek DiFilippo's stunning arrangement of a Shostakovich piano prelude, and a screaming rendition of John McLaughlin's "Birds of Fire".

1999
Seattle Guitar Circle
Twilight
Curt Golden: Guitar, Composer

The product of a year of very extensive work with a consistent team, following a mass migration of Crafty Guitarists to Seattle. Players: Steve Ball, Bob Williams, Jaxie Binder, Curt Golden, Bill Rieflin, and Dean Jensen. The material consists largely of material from "The Wilsons" (Bob and Jaxie), expanded for a sextet, as well as pieces by Bill and myself, an adaptation of a lovely piece by Philip Catherine and Robert Wyatt, and the composed-through-impov "Anniversary Circulation". 

1995
Robert Fripp and the League of Crafty Guitarists
Intergalactic Boogie Express - Live in Europe 1991
Curt Golden: Guitar, Composer

In 1991 the League undertook a 1-month tour of Europe. This would mark the end of a period of very active engagement for Robert and the League. It was a relatively small team by League standards, but it was formidable and included a trio of players who would emerge as The California Guitar Trio. My composition, "Flying Home" is included in the set.

1991
Robert Fripp and the League of Crafty Guitarists
Show of Hands
Curt Golden: Guitar, Composer

In July 1990, more or less halfway through about 15 months of nonstop touring, the League headed into Manhattan Center Studios in NYC to record our second commercial release. I had stepped off the touring team a month or so earlier in order to look after some personal business, but they were recording in my town and I was invited to take part. My composition, "Bicycling to Afghanistan", had been recorded for "Get Crafty", but didn't make the final cut. We took another run at it for this one, and this time it made it. I fired Robert from the bass part and overdubbed it myself. I was a cocky little so and so, evidently.

1988
The League of Crafty Guitarists
Get Crafty I
Curt Golden: Guitar

Intense work out of Red Lion House in Cranborne (Dorset, England), as well as the continuing activity in the States, had resulted in a great deal of new material. "Get Crafty" captures a moment. The League would within the next year embark on massive tour of North America, and "Live!" no longer really represented what we were doing. "Get Crafty I" was never commercially released, but sold at League performances.

1986
Robert Fripp and the League of Crafty Guitarists
Live!
Curt Golden: Guitar

This was the product of the first Guitar Craft "Level II" course in December 1985. All of the music was written during that two-week project. There had been several days of recording in the ballroom of the Claymont Mansion, but those sessions weren't yielding enough usable material, so the decision was made to record the live shows we were doing at George Washington University in Washington, DC on the final days. The material on this album comes from those shows, augmented by a new "Frippertronics" piece that had not been part of the Guitar Craft project. Improvisations from the ballroom recording sessions did appear as musical accompaniment on side two of Toyah and Robert's album, "The Lady Or The Tiger".

1984
Neal Finch and Don Dennis
37 Years Later - Together Again
Curt Golden: Guitar, Arranger, Band Leader

Okay. Neal was a customer of mine at Giant Music in Falls Church, VA. He had played tenor in swing and dance bands until the Second World War, a career, and a family, intervened. He hadn’t played for 35 years. For his 60th birthday his five (count ‘em, five) sons got together and bought him a lovely Selmer, and he once again began practicing. He came into the store looking for “music minus one” records to practice with. I introduced him to the Jamie Aebersold series, and that did the trick. Along the way we became friends.

I had my little 4-track studio set up in my living room. We secretly got together and recorded ourselves playing along with a number of track from the Duke Ellington disk. He slipped cassettes of the final product into his sons’ Christmas stockings that year, as a thank you for the saxophone.

We remained close, even toying with the idea of opening up a restaurant that would feature live jazz. He kept practicing, and reconnected with his old friend Don Dennis. They had played together before the war, and Don had continued to pursue music, playing trumpet with Stan Kenton and others. They hatched the idea of doing a record. Neal put together a band of the cream of the Washington DC jazz crop… plus me. He and I worked through the material he had in mind, and narrowed it down to the ones we would record. I did simple head arrangements. We did 2 or 3 rehearsals and headed into the studio. Never commercially available. A labor of love.

as a sideman or composer:

2003
Steve Ball
Steve Ball Box Set
Curt Golden: Acoustic Guitar, Electric Slide Guitar

Steve's magnum opus. I went in for a few sessions, and happily some of it made the cut. I can be heard on several tracks on the "Knotwork" and "Roadshow" disks.

2003
KMFDM
WWIII
Curt Golden: Harmonica on "Bullets, Bombs & Bigotry"

That's right, a harmonica solo on an Industrial Music album. You got a problem with that? Recorded sitting in the stairwell of Sascha's home in Seattle.

2002
KMFDM
Attak
Curt Golden: Electric Slide Guitar on "Sleep"

Bill Rieflin, who played a bunch of stuff on this album as well as coproducing it, brought me into his home studio for this. My part was recorded over a very sparse reference track, so I really had no idea what it was going to ultimately sound like. Bill knew what he wanted, and I did my best to deliver.

1994
The Robert Fripp String Quintet
The Bridge Between
Curt Golden: Composer ("Bicycling to Afghanistan")

A collaboration between Robert Fripp, Trey Gunn, and the California Guitar Trio. The record is primarily interpretations of CGT and Guitar Craft repertoire. My composition, "Bicycling to Afghanistan", with a slightly different arrangement, is included.

1987
Toyah
Desire
Curt Golden: Guitar

Toyah adapted two compositions by Tony Geballe for this album, and the League went into Abbey Road Studios to record them as accompaniment for the new arrangements. "Revive the World" made it onto the album. The second, "Re-Entry Into Dance" based on "Additive Synthesis", was released as the b-side of a single. My primary recollection was being blown away by how massive we sounded when played back in the booth (we were recorded in natural stereo by sitting around a binaural head), as contrasted with how tiny we sound on the recording as released.

1986
Toyah and Fripp
The Lady or the Tiger
Curt Golden: Guitar

The music accompanying Side Two, "The Discourager Of Hesitancy", came from improvisations captured during the recording of "Robert Fripp and the League of Crafty Guitarists: Live!"