robert fripp chills out at eastnor castle

i began this day earlier than most, due in large part to the restless sleep i experienced after a middle-of-the-night storm. heavy rain and the long dolorous rumble of thunder is a fave experience of mine not currently shared by either of my children. i was much the same at their age - strangely afraid of the sound of thunder. no amount of logic about what thunder is and how it in no way affects their continued aspirations towards a long and healthy life matters to them. in the same way as it didn’t matter to me, and likely won’t matter to their children.

so, i made my way downstairs, put together a batch of wickedgood coffee, sat in my favourite chair, took some good, long, deep breaths and put on my headphones to listen to robert fripp’s latest soundscapes release. this music comes from the 2005 ”big chill” music festival at which robert played three sets spread over three days. through the magic of the ‘net i was able to nip over to dgmlive (link below) and purchase and download sets from august 6th and 7th a few nights ago.

so, this morning as the eastern sky filled with tangerine clouds washing over into a lingering bank of deep grey-purple bruised sky, and with the promise of much much more rain, i listened to the second of his three sets which took place on august 6th.

for those of you who are new to fripp, and then also new to soundscapes, there is much to tell. i can’t tell it all here, but suffice it to say that soundscapes are an interesting way of listening to the music that passes through robert fripp. fripp is probably more broadly known for his work with the band known as king crimson. where his work with king crimson feels like an articulation of the possibilities of work within a creative social structure placed inside the rigours and expectations of the marketplace, the soundscapes seem more descriptive of the work of a person within themselves engaging with what emerges from the real world, while still placed in the broader context of the marketplace.

soundscapes feature robert creating washes and waves of sound by sending the signal from an electric guitar to be processed through a bank of delay units and processors that act much like a painter’s palette in providing a form of relational mediation between the music and the musician. this mediation sounds on the surface like texture and colour and shape. beneath the surface (where as robert reminds us in one of his aphorisms, “lie riches”) it affords an opportunity to experience a release into a space that is difficult to term and likely wouldn’t benefit from naming.

robert’s soundscapes can be lovely pastoral works that gently unfold and provide the listener with a sense of . . . well, reassurance and care are ideas that come to mind ..... they can also be charged with a complex, spiritual intensity that compels the listener to be utterly focussed and inside the moment.

this set from august the 6th would largely fall into the former with its languorous unfolding beginning with the tinkling, then chiming bell washes of “threshold” that echo and then fade into the first of two “improvisations” in which the longer, layered more meditative soundscapes appear.

a more “aggressive” “threshold ii” then appears with rushing waves of bell orchestras intermingled with breathy voices. this leads into an extended improvisation which includes some lovely restrained but dissonant washes that unfurl inside the larger waves of the soundscape. this music has much in common with a set robert played at new york’s society for ethical culture. both give the sense of an unpacking of a moment and (without boxing the music into an express purpose) there’s a sense of the eastnor and the new york music offering hope and care. the eastnor set ends with the sudden inrush of “threshold iii” which compels the listener to return to this world.

the popular press as represented by lisa verrico of the times had a very different sense of this music: “robert fripp opened the festival and appeared on all three days, but his impact was minimal. fifteen minutes into his saturday set, folk were asking when he was starting. fripp's feet were busy at effects pedals making wishy-washy ambient sounds, but his guitar was practically unplayed and anyone waiting for a tune was out of luck.” lisa’s experience provides a worthy learning. her comments suggest that she arrived with her ears set on hearing something, and so her words describe the space between her expectations and the actual features of the music that arrived.

should you choose to head over to robert’s website where you can listen to samples of this concert and perhaps even line his pocket, you are advised that “waiting for a tune” will result in the sort of tremendous disappointment experienced by ms. verrico. there simply isn’t one! rather, listen with your ears to what is there, and then “listen also with the ears of the heart”. this is music that affords the listener the opportunity to strip off the veneer of their relationship between music and themselves and to enjoy the truly beautiful - the riches just beneath the surface - without expectation.

if you are curious about what a complete soundscape sounds like and feels like, then you might want to give this piece entitled 'refraction" a listen. it is an older example, dating back to the year 2000 when robert was musician-in-residence at the world trade centre.