Sometimes, if we’re lucky, music transcends the space and time of its creation. The set at Wulfren Hall is one of those. [endtease] It’s nothing short of a miracle that music as sublime and as searching as this was able to emerge from an environment where the majority of the crowd were waiting expectantly for Porcupine Tree. Mind you, that's not as bad as some of the people who were there to see Fripp play.
AV Hall recalls that “a guy in the T-shirt with a print of RF’s equipment set-up bundled past me as the doors opened shouting "I must see Fripp, I must see Fripp" was the first one to take a picture of him standing in the wings. One of his party subsequently took a second picture as the guitarist sat down. Stepping back from my standing position in the second row I accidentally backed into the guy who had a concealed DAT recorder and a tiny microphone positioned out of his top jacket pocket.”
With friends like these, etc., etc. Remarkably, none of these obstacles is apparent in the soundscape we have here. To these ears, the version of Time Stands Still is one of the best in the whole series of the December suite to date.
From Robert’s diary
Throat pain this evening continues to be excruciating, so great that 30 minutes was all I could manage onstage. A supportive audience in a standing hall.
