Hopes and Fears

Henry Cow recorded much of the album at Sunrise Studio in Kirchberg, Switzerland, between 15 and 29 January 1978. The members then argued over the number of songs, and it was agreed that Fred Frith, Chris Cutler and Krause would release them as Art Bears. They added four tracks at Kaleidophon Studios in London, 15 to 18 March 1978. Cutler listed them as The Tube, Terrain, Piers and The Dance. Cutler recalled that the trio completed the album without playing together: he sent texts to Frith, who set them, and in the studio they laid down a click track beside the vocal melody for Krause to take upstairs and learn.

Production is credited to Art Bears and Etienne Conod. Lindsay Cooper, Tim Hodgkinson and Georgie Born appear as guests. The credits became a sore point: Hodgkinson said he felt something had been stolen from him, and Born said she felt she had been dispossessed of her labor. Cutler rewrote the lyrics of Joan as an homage to Joan of Arc, and Henry Cow's feminist faction objected, but Krause supported the new words and both songs were recorded with them. Stewart Mason of AllMusic called it one of the art rock masterpieces of the 1970s, and Frank-John Hadley of DownBeat called it staggeringly literate, uncompromising and entertaining.