In those areas where I feel able to present initiatives, or suggestions for new repertoire, my MO is to spend time with guitar, manuscript & pencil. This is not as cerebral an activity as it may appear from these few words. The process is more instinctive, the manuscript a form of remembrance. The notation then allows for a different form of processing, which is primarily cerebral. Inversion, retrogression & mechanical treatments, utterly beyond my power of internal audial representation, then become possible. It also means that I save a lot of time banging about testing ideas with the team.
This MO doesn't always work, and my manuscript books over the years are littered with more dud ideas than power surges. But every now and then I pull out a manuscript book and look at the origin of, for example, the fast unison breaks in "Schizoid" or more recently the solo guitar intro in "Larks' III" from 1983 and revisit the time and place of download.
Today's Pencil Frenzy involved developments for the "F" piece, adding a building block which has been waiting to be appended, and - most significant - two possible development steps for "Light ConstruKction". One of these proved monumentally successful with the team. This was an idea which has gently presented itself several times since yesterday afternoon, away from the guitar, as I considered what was needed. For the first time since 1984, Crimson has re-adopted the Belew - Fripp interlocking guitars in a new piece of music. "The boys are back in town!" RF said to Ade. This with a Crim rhythm section negotiating their independent but linked transitions between 10/8, 11/8 & 12/8, and all at 152bpm.
The "F" piece also worked, but by 14.35 my brain was dead. Four hours a day, every day for intensive writing, is a lot. This in addition to personal writing & practice. We're holding in at a basic 5-6 hours together, plus the BPM team's digital editing & Pat's editing and annotation of our running DATs. At the end of a day, I'm wiped flat.
Other excitements at Chez Belewbeloid today: the septic tank was sucked out. Aromatically rich in the garage where Bill is editing.
The weather today dropped 15-20 degrees. The changing leaves present a daily unfolding of russet hues, and now the trees are beginning to look woody.
