''Richter 858'' is a 2005 studio album by American jazz guitarist

Bill Frisell William Richard Frisell (born March 18, 1951) is an American jazz guitarist. He first came to prominence at ECM Records in the 1980s, as both a session player and a leader. He went on to work in a variety of contexts, notably as a participant ...

consisting of improvised music inspired by the paintings of German artist

Gerhard Richter Gerhard Richter (; born 9 February 1932) is a German visual artist. Richter has produced Abstract art, abstract as well as photorealistic paintings, photographs and Glass art, glass pieces. He is widely regarded as one of the most important con ...

Background

The album features Frisell,

Eyvind Kang Eyvindur Y. Kang (born 23 June 1971) is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist. His primary instrument is viola, but has also performed on violin, tuba, keyboard instruments, keyboards and others. In addition to his solo work, Kang has w ...

Jenny Scheinman Jenny Scheinman is a jazz violinist. She has produced several critically acclaimed solo albums, including ''12 Songs'', named one of the Top Ten Albums of 2005 by ''The New York Times''. She has played with Linda Perry, Norah Jones, Nels Cline, ...

and

Hank Roberts Hank Roberts (born March 24, 1954, Terre Haute, Indiana) is an American jazz cellist and vocalist. He plays the electric cello, and his style is a mixture of rock, jazz, avant-garde, folk, and classical influences. He emerged with the downtown Ne ...

. ''Richter 858'' was originally released as part of a limited-edition volume of

's paintings which also contained poetry and essays by

Dave Hickey David Hickey (December 5, 1938 – November 12, 2021) was an American art critic who wrote for many American publications including ''Rolling Stone'', '' ARTnews'', '' Art in America'', ''Artforum'', ''Harper's Magazine'', and '' Vanity Fair''. ...

and Klaus Kertess inspired by the artist's work. The album was rereleased in 2005 on the Songlines label with a CD-ROM with MP3 music to accompany a slide show of the paintings, which are reproduced in an accompanying booklet.Corroto M
Richter 858

All About Jazz ''All About Jazz'' is a website established by Michael Ricci in 1995. A volunteer staff publishes news, album reviews, articles, videos, and listings of concerts and other events having to do with jazz. Ricci maintains a related site, ''Jazz Near ...

, January 24, 2005.

Reception

The

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

review by Sean Westergaard awarded the album 4 stars, stating, "This is a very interesting new sound for Bill Frisell, and apparently this band is developing more music together outside the scope of the original project. Recommended."Westergaard, S.
Allmusic Review
accessed June 21, 2011

Track listing

All compositions by Bill Frisell. # "858-1" – 7:58 # "858-2" – 3:15 # "858-3" – 4:13 # "858-4" – 9:00 # "858-5" – 4:34 # "858-6" – 6:40 # "858-7" – 6:34 # "858-8" – 4:56

Personnel

– guitar, effects *

– viola *

– violin *

– cello

References

{{Authority control 2005 albums Bill Frisell albums