About this album:
The history of the orchestrations presented on this album began in 2006. The Septembre Musical Festival in Montreux/Vevey (Switzerland) had invited Ensemble Musikfabrik to perform the music of Edgard Varèse and Frank Zappa for an anniversary edition. I was hired to create new arrangements for this occasion. Soloists and rhythm section at that time were Mats Öberg (keyboards), Morgan Ågren (drums), and David Lindvall (bass).
Over the years, more and more arrangements of Frank’s music from the seventies were created for Ensemble Musikfabrik. The focus was on pieces that were suitable for larger orchestrations and in which the rock element was dominant. This material was performed in different cities such as Munich, Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Berlin, Cologne, Dublin and Essen (without Napi, yet).
In 2018, the idea of performing a complete concert with these arrangements at Zappanale #30 in Bad Doberan finally emerged. Dirk Rothbrust had already gained experience here with the extremely demanding task of being a drummer, conductor, and soloist all in one (and has been a connoisseur of FZ’s work since his early years).
And who could be more suitable as a vocal soloist than Napoleon Murphy Brock, who still had the voice and energy from 1973?
Knowing that this would be a chance of a lifetime, Ralph Kessler brought his mobile recording equipment and made a multitrack recording of this event. Anyway, we found this performance of a 20-piece band with a powerhouse of a frontman remarkable and worthy of living on in the form of an album to delight the rest of the world.

And by the way: who could be more suitable as artist and designer of the CD artwork than the one and only Calvin Schenkel who had created cover art for many original FZ albums.

Thanks to everyone who made this album possible!
Thanks for coming to the show!
Music is the best.                                                                                                                       Ali N. Askin, June 2023.