Ruins

Ruins is the longest track on Unrest. Frith used Fibonacci numbers to set its beat and harmony after reading about Bartok's use of the series. To make it somewhat classical-sounding he added violin, bassoon and xylophone, and he later said he regretted playing the violin so badly on it, adding that it would be interesting to try again with the violinist Carla Kihlstedt. Parts of it were taken from Teenbeat, which itself began in his suite With the Yellow Half-Moon and Blue Star. On parts of Ruins the bassoon, alto saxophone, drums and voice were recorded at half or double speed, and Mike Oldfield engineered part of it.

Logged setlists show 35 performances. The piece is on Concerts, and the Grenoble tape of 17 May 1975 has it running into an improvisation of nearly twelve minutes.