Champaign-Urbana Sessions

Originally released in 2002 as KCCC21 The Champaign-Urbana sessions from January 1983 documents the struggle to come up with a third King Crimson album by the line-up that had brought us Discipline (1981) and Beat (1982).

Although this club release is filled with ideas and motifs which would eventually find a home on Three Of A Perfect Pair, many of them would would not. Several times we hear tracks tailing off into nothing as enthusiasm or inspiration abandons the Crims accordingly. It’s interesting to hear the Bowie-heavy vibe of Not One Of Those and speculate how this might have developed had it been taken further.

Synth-heavy textures and deep grooves seem very much to be the order of the day as we hear Crimson in sifting-mode, seeing what works, what doesn’t and marking things down to be revisited at a later point.

Fragmented would undergo several bouts of research and development before eventually morphing into as Industry, and the track entitled Robert and Bill ended up as the introductory section of LTIA Pt 3.

Crimson would continue the search for their third album after this session. First they’d try a shot at in Arny’s Shack in Dorset in May 1983. Then the action changed location to Marcus Studio, in London where Beat had been recorded in the previous June, and for the final time that year at Bearsville Studios in New York state in November.