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[[File:AHF86.jpg|450px|right]]
[[File:AHF86.jpg|200px|right]]Frankfurt '86 is an CD/DVD album of Allan's concert on February 16, 1986, at Kongresshalle in Frankfurt, Germany, released in 2020. The audio and video has been located from the original broadcast masters of Hessische Rundfunk. The album features Allan on guitar and SynthAxe, Gary Husband on drums, Jimmy Johnson on bass, and Kei Akagi on keyboards.


To be released on May 29, 2020 by Manifesto Records.
==Track listing==


==Ordering info==
{|class='wikitable'
|+Allan Holdsworth: Frankfurt '86 ([[Allan Holdsworth Discography|D]] - [[Allan Holdsworth Solo Albums|S]] - [[Allan Holdsworth filmography|F]]) ([https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_m40V-y8AxwnaCOwE-NDeTVmYsxPkmT1GY YT])
|-
|
!style="text-align:left;"|Track title
!style="text-align:left;"|Composer
!style="text-align:left;"|Length
|-
|1.
|Three Sheets To The Wind
|Holdsworth
|6:24
|-
|2.
|Letters Of Marque
|Holdsworth
|15:04
|-
|3.
|Tokyo Dream
|Holdsworth
|8:54
|-
|4.
|Looking Glass
|Holdsworth
|7:29
|-
|5.
|Atavachron
|Holdsworth
|4:51
|-
|6.
|Non-Brewed Condiment
|Holdsworth
|5:36
|-
|7.
|White Line
|Holdsworth/Brown
|7:57
|-
|8.
|Shallow Sea
|Holdsworth
|6:23
|-
|9.
|Devil Take The Hindmost
|Holdsworth
|7:35
|}


===Amazon===
'''Allan Holdsworth''': Guitar, SynthAxe<br>
 
'''Gary Husband''': Drums<br>
'''''Preorders for the U.S. market are open on [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0863RP33Q/ Amazon (US)].'''''
'''Jimmy Johnson''': Bass<br>
 
'''Kei Akagi''': Keyboards
'''''Preorders for non-U.S. orders:''''' At the time of writing (April 14), Amazon.com does not deliver outside the USA, at least not to all countries. Please check the Amazon link for availability. However, Amazon UK is taking preorders, and they deliver to several countries. Please check availability to your country here: [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Frankfurt-86-Allan-Holdsworth/dp/B0863RP33Q/ '''''Amazon UK''''']
 
===WOWHD===
 
Manifesto advises that WOWHD is a legitimate alternative. WOWHD has 12 localized domains covering Europe, North America, Oceania, and a few other countries. They deliver in the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, UK (and maybe a few more).
 
'''''Here is a link to the UK site: [https://www.wowhd.co.uk/allan-holdsworth-frankfurt-86/767004651927 WOWHD UK product page].'''''  
 
Select the country of your choice, and have the price quoted for you in the local currency. The price quoted includes shipping. Note that according to the website, items ship from a warehouse in Shepherdsville, KY, United States. They also state: "Please be prepared to pay the CUSTOMS DUTY, TAXES / VAT that your country charges."
 
===Disclaimer===
 
The preceding is not an endorsement of any of the shops listed. Amazon is the shop that Manifesto links to on their website. Manifesto advises that WOWHD is a legitimate alternative. There may be other legitimate alternatives. Amazon.com may resume deliveries outside of the USA at a later date. The choice of vendor is entirely at the customer's discretion and responsibility. The Allan Holdsworth Information Center does not earn a commission from any of the links given. At the time of writing, the world is suffering the effects of a pandemic. We would like to point out that global deliveries might be delayed due to the situation.


==Album info==
==Album info==
 
This concert is unique in that it is the first known professionally shot concert performance of Allan playing the SynthAxe, and maybe even his first live playing the SynthAxe ever. This shows, as the system malfunctions on stage a couple times during the concert. Nevertheless, the performance is stellar.
Frankfurt '86 is an upcoming CD/DVD album of Allan's concert on February 16, 1986, at Kongresshalle in Frankfurt, Germany. The audio and video has been located from the original broadcast masters of Hessische Rundfunk, and the quality surpasses existing bootlegs to the extent that it's like watching the concert for the very first time, judging by the video previews that have been released:
 
https://vimeo.com/403438628
 
https://vimeo.com/423496357
 
The track list is identical to the one from the original broadcast:
 
1. Three Sheets to the Wind<br>
2. Letters of Marque<br>
3. Tokyo Dream<br>
4. Looking Glass<br>
5. Atavachron<br>
6. Non-Brewed Condiment<br>
7. White Line<br>
8. Shallow Sea<br>
9. Devil Take the Hindmost
 
The lineup for this concert features Gary Husband on drums, Jimmy Johnson on bass and Kei Akagi on keyboards.
 
This concert is unique in that it is the first known professionally shot concert performance of Allan playing the SynthAxe. This shows, as the system malfunctions on stage a couple times during the concert. Nevertheless, the performance is stellar.


==Jimmy Johnson's comments on the album==
==Jimmy Johnson's comments on the album==


In a recent post on the Alembic forum, Jimmy Johnson recounts his momeries of the gig. The post is in response to a preview trailer, so for the context, we include the clip here: https://vimeo.com/423496357. This is an excerpt of Jimmy’s post, the link to the full post is: http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=8041.1500
''In a recent post on the Alembic forum, Jimmy Johnson recounts his momeries of the gig. The post is in response to a preview trailer, so for the context, we include the clip here: https://vimeo.com/423496357. This is an excerpt of Jimmy’s post, the link to the full post is: http://club.alembic.com/index.php?topic=8041.1500
''


JJ: “This particular gig was at the Frankfurt Musikmesse in 1986. That's the EU equivalent of our NAMM show here in the States but actually a larger exposition. I don't remember the exact circumstances which brought Kei Akagi into the band on keyboards, but this was his first and only tour with the band. He did an excellent job of dealing with the music but never had the chance to get very comfortable with it. Furthermore, I'm sure Allan and I got together with him in LA for a couple rehearsals but it's possible he had not yet played with Gary Husband until the day of this show.”
JJ: “This particular gig was at the Frankfurt Musikmesse in 1986. That's the EU equivalent of our NAMM show here in the States but actually a larger exposition. I don't remember the exact circumstances which brought Kei Akagi into the band on keyboards, but this was his first and only tour with the band. He did an excellent job of dealing with the music but never had the chance to get very comfortable with it. Furthermore, I'm sure Allan and I got together with him in LA for a couple rehearsals but it's possible he had not yet played with Gary Husband until the day of this show.”


JJ: “This was the very first gig of the tour - and likely funded our flight expenses to get to Europe. So we had flown in the day before, then spent almost all of this day jet-lagged and running around the Muskmesse collecting gear which had been offered from various manufacturers for use on the tour. But as I said, that convention is HUGE so picture us trying to find the Mesa Boogie booth (or whatever he was using at the time) on the floor of the show, then finding a handcart to wheel speaker cabinets the 2 miles to the venue, dealing with security to get the gear out of the building, etc... I have the feeling we had to chase down a drum kit that same way. That took all day leaving us precious little time for a soundcheck or a much needed rehearsal with the full band.”
JJ: “This was the very first gig of the tour - and likely funded our flight expenses to get to Europe. So we had flown in the day before, then spent almost all of this day jet-lagged and running around the Muiskmesse collecting gear which had been offered from various manufacturers for use on the tour. But as I said, that convention is HUGE so picture us trying to find the Mesa Boogie booth (or whatever he was using at the time) on the floor of the show, then finding a handcart to wheel speaker cabinets the 2 miles to the venue, dealing with security to get the gear out of the building, etc... I have the feeling we had to chase down a drum kit that same way. That took all day leaving us precious little time for a soundcheck or a much needed rehearsal with the full band.”


JJ: “So we had done what we could to get set up with the borrowed gear and get the monitors working so we could hear each other. We understood that we were contractually obligated to let the "festival" be recorded for a one-time tv broadcast. What we had NOT anticipated was that as soon as we started playing, 2 or 3 handheld cameramen and their cable wrangling assistants were running back and forth on stage basically in our faces. To the point where they were stepping on our pedals! Complete disregard for us trying to concentrate on the music. It was one of those situations where you needed to completely close your eyes and not see what was happening around you. But then my chorus effect would suddenly turn on. HA!!”
JJ: “So we had done what we could to get set up with the borrowed gear and get the monitors working so we could hear each other. We understood that we were contractually obligated to let the "festival" be recorded for a one-time tv broadcast. What we had NOT anticipated was that as soon as we started playing, 2 or 3 handheld cameramen and their cable wrangling assistants were running back and forth on stage basically in our faces. To the point where they were stepping on our pedals! Complete disregard for us trying to concentrate on the music. It was one of those situations where you needed to completely close your eyes and not see what was happening around you. But then my chorus effect would suddenly turn on. HA!!”
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==Some technical notes on the video production by producer Greg Beaton==
==Some technical notes on the video production by producer Greg Beaton==


Greg Beaton has offered a peak into the video remastering process here:
'''Greg Beaton has offered a peek into the video remastering process here:
 
'''
https://vimeo.com/434449790
https://vimeo.com/434449790


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Just for the curious: Frame rate conversion, color correction & re-sizing performed in DaVinci Resolve. Audio mastering performed in Digital Performer with UA tools (mostly vintage gear emulations to enhance saturation, harmonic content, stereo soundstage and transformer-esque sonic experiences with minimal compression). File compressed for DVD in Compressor at highest possible data rate with double the data rate usually used for audio. Authored in DVD Studio Pro."
Just for the curious: Frame rate conversion, color correction & re-sizing performed in DaVinci Resolve. Audio mastering performed in Digital Performer with UA tools (mostly vintage gear emulations to enhance saturation, harmonic content, stereo soundstage and transformer-esque sonic experiences with minimal compression). File compressed for DVD in Compressor at highest possible data rate with double the data rate usually used for audio. Authored in DVD Studio Pro."


Additionally, here's an excerpt of a comment by Greg on Facebook:
'''Additionally, here's an excerpt of a comment by Greg on Facebook:
'''


GB: "...with the limited budget and inability to make new cuts (add edits) on many of the transitions (because of frame rate conversion) and treat every shot separately, I felt the best choice was to globally expose for everyone’s skin (and Allan’s fretboard) and allow the highs to blow out. I kept going back and forth and I just felt it was a better compromise to portray their faces and instruments as natural - not that I feel like what I did was drastically better than the original, since it does fall short in lots of situations, but I felt that while the original was technically legal for broadcast tv, that namely their faces and Allan’s guitar were “in the dark.” I’m guessing it was a combination of not-so-great lighting and the camera technology you highlighted leaving us with a less-than-stellar luminance curve. I tried to bring only the mids up, but had to blow out the highs to keep any kind of normal contrast ratio. This of course left me with overexposed white piano keys and cymbals, but I felt like I was choosing the lesser of 2 evils, since the artists are the subjects we care most about. I also went back and forth with the black levels / setup, but ended up feeling bumping it up slightly to reveal a bit of information that was falling off too quickly to shadow was worth the compromise of noise. No noise reduction was employed.
GB: "...with the limited budget and inability to make new cuts (add edits) on many of the transitions (because of frame rate conversion) and treat every shot separately, I felt the best choice was to globally expose for everyone’s skin (and Allan’s fretboard) and allow the highs to blow out. I kept going back and forth and I just felt it was a better compromise to portray their faces and instruments as natural - not that I feel like what I did was drastically better than the original, since it does fall short in lots of situations, but I felt that while the original was technically legal for broadcast tv, that namely their faces and Allan’s guitar were “in the dark.” I’m guessing it was a combination of not-so-great lighting and the camera technology you highlighted leaving us with a less-than-stellar luminance curve. I tried to bring only the mids up, but had to blow out the highs to keep any kind of normal contrast ratio. This of course left me with overexposed white piano keys and cymbals, but I felt like I was choosing the lesser of 2 evils, since the artists are the subjects we care most about. I also went back and forth with the black levels / setup, but ended up feeling bumping it up slightly to reveal a bit of information that was falling off too quickly to shadow was worth the compromise of noise. No noise reduction was employed.
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Found at https://www.facebook.com/groups/allanh/permalink/2935459816576976/
Found at https://www.facebook.com/groups/allanh/permalink/2935459816576976/
==Links==
Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_m40V-y8AxwnaCOwE-NDeTVmYsxPkmT1GY
Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/master/1805068-Allan-Holdsworth-Frankfurt-86
Previews:
https://vimeo.com/403438628
https://vimeo.com/423496357
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