Robert Fripp

Robert Fripp's Diary

Saturday 09 May 2020

Bredonborough.

11.47

Rising 06.45. A walking/sitting morning exercise down the garden…

I Advance Masked – Day Forty-Nine…

… and with sprousy socks…

The street…

Morning reading and writing…

Morning listening: Henri Dutilleux.

Morning reflecting: how to present a report on my professional life, that of a working player, in a form that ordinary, decent people engaging with critical goodwill may have some sense of the mechanics of the music industry; this without being so repelled that they turn and run away, perhaps even holding their noses. And how, despite all, Music might lean over and whisper in our ears.

The Wasps’ Nest has been buzzing recently, although recently is redundant: the Wasps’ Nest never goes away. It is ongoing, ever-present and increasingly evident through social media; a resource available to those interested in investigating life-inverted.

The Wasps’ Nest is a particular region of The Basement. It has its own levels and characteristics. While much Basement activity is carried out in private, a primary characteristic of the Wasps’ Nest is the public aspect. Wasps go out in public, heads placed where sunshine never falls, and comment on the weather. Bzzzzzz.

14.43 For the second consecutive day, I have been lunch-cook here in Fripcox Palace (according to some pretty-dopey reports). An acceptably-tasty piece of work, if not quite art, by the back door…

After-lunch reading…

19.04 To the Cellar and practicing; watering the garden; and now listening to future Quiet Moments. Continuing a reflective day…

Music is Spirit, manifesting within sound and time.

In a market society, this is not a view likely to find widespread support. How about…

Music is a quality, organized in sound and in time: unconditioned, ineffable, timeless.

The performance of music may have excellence, but excellence has nothing whatsoever to do with the Quality within sound we recognise as Music. A shit performance can allow the Spirit to speak, an excellent performance can be empty (whatever we understand by Spirit).

Music is a spiritual Grace, an aspect of Spirit, the noumenal present through and within the phenomenal, and in all manner of mundane and everyday situations as well as specifically musical events.

Enough wittering. Time to settle with Sweet Lips Willcox.

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