Free Design - Butterflies Are Free: Original Recordings 1967-1972

Four CDs. The Dedrick children, Chris, his brother Bruce, their sister Sandra and their younger sisters Ellen and Stefanie, were born into a world of music. Rather than be dictated to and diluted by the majors, they chose to commit to the artistic freedom and potential to develop offered them by the producer Enoch Light through his independent set up, Project 3. During the 1990's The Free Design enjoyed a renaissance. The enthusiastic reevaluation of their work by a new generation of international musicians; Cornelius, Beck, Stereolab and the High Llamas, who insisted that The Free Design be placed among the all-time greats of vocal harmony; to be spoken of in the same sentence as The Beach Boys and The Carpenters. With exceptions, The Free Design were at their most pure in recordings of their own compositions. 'Kites Are Fun', 'Bubbles', 'Kije's Ouija', 'My Brother Woody', 'Ivy On A Windy Day', 'Starlight', 'Daniel Dolphin', 'I'm A Yogi', 'My Very Own Angel,' and the 'Dorian Benediction', each adorned by the baroque fantasy quality which is uniquely theirs. Breathtakingly original songs full of playful, nostalgic lyrical imagery; sometimes surprisingly dark; always enormously listenable. Whilst the arrangements reflected Chris Dedrick's classical training and eclectic taste, the beautifully detailed sound must be attributed - at least in part - to the legendary sound engineer Phil Ramone, a magician whose emphasis on subtlety and nuance in performance conceived such creations as 'The Girl from Ipanema' by Astrud Gilberto, 'Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard' by Paul Simon, the Bob Dylan album, "Blood On the Tracks", and, of course, 'Bubbles' by The Free Design.