hypersongs

The Free Design

The vocal group of Chris, Sandy and Bruce Dedrick, whose 1967 Project 3 single "Kites Are Fun" is a landmark of sunshine and baroque pop.

The Village Fare

The Free Design came from Delevan, a farm town south of Buffalo, and formed in New York City around 1966. Siblings Sandy, Chris and Bruce Dedrick began singing together in Sandy's apartment as the Village Fare, doing Peter Paul and Mary songs for free in Greenwich Village coffeehouses including the Bitter End. Chris, the main songwriter and arranger, was nineteen. He wrote "Kites Are Fun" before the band had a name, and Sandy calls it the real beginning of the Free Design. Design came first in the name, for their contrapuntal songs. Their influences included the Hi-Lo's, Peter Paul and Mary, Benjamin Britten, Duke Ellington and Motown, and Chris called the sound Blue Hill Music.

A demo of "Kites Are Fun" and "The Proper Ornaments" brought offers from three labels, including RCA Victor, and they chose Enoch Light's Project 3 for the artistic freedom. Ellen Dedrick joined for the second album, and Bruce left after Stars/Time/Bubbles/Love (or before One by One, depending on the source), returning the group to a trio. Albums on Project 3 were Kites Are Fun (1967), You Could Be Born Again (1968), Heaven/Earth (1969), Stars/Time/Bubbles/Love (May 1970), ...Sing for Very Important People (1970) and One by One (1971 or 1972), then There Is a Song (1972) on Ambrotype. They appeared on The Tonight Show, The Mike Douglas Show, Merv Griffin and Dick Cavett, but touring was limited and sales modest, which Sandy and Chris blamed on Project 3's limited distribution.

Rediscovery

Chris moved to Toronto in 1972 and Sandy and Ellen followed; Sandy says they never formally decided to call it quits. From 1976 the three were the core of the Star-Scape Singers, who toured Europe and North America and played Carnegie Hall, and Chris became a film and television composer, winning four Gemini awards and a Genie for Guy Maddin's The Saddest Music in the World. Cornelius reissued the catalogue in Japan on Trattoria in 1994, Siesta in Spain followed in 1998, and Light in the Attic reissued the albums from 2002 to 2005. Stereolab named a 1999 single "The Free Design", without any direct connection. Beck, Belle and Sebastian, the High Llamas, Pizzicato Five and Madlib are linked to them.

In 2000 they regrouped to record "Endless Harmony" for the Beach Boys tribute Caroline Now!, which led to the reunion album Cosmic Peekaboo (Marina, 2001). The Now Sound Redesigned (Light in the Attic, 2005) collected remixes by Stereolab, Super Furry Animals, Peanut Butter Wolf and Madlib. Chris Dedrick died on August 6, 2010, aged 62. The four-disc box Butterflies Are Free: The Original Recordings 1967-72 (Cherry Red, 2020) gathers the originals with mono single mixes. In 2024 the Discograffiti podcast ran a five-and-a-half-hour interview with Sandy, Bruce and Ellen.

Albums

Songs

  • Kites Are Fun Kites Are Fun · 1967

    Chris Dedrick's first song for the group, the band's only charting single.

Sources

  1. The Free Design, Wikipedia
  2. Free Design interview, Red Bull Music Academy Daily (2011-03-08)
  3. Under the Radar, Record Collector (2021)
  4. The Free Design, The Free Design