Soundscapes @ Sutton

First up is Adam Moore:
"On Saturday 3rd June I attended the Soundscape Performance by Robert Fripp at St. Andrew’s Church, Sutton, near Ely. This was a very exciting occasion as I had also been at the service at which Robert had played in December last year in the same church. The two performances were very different, perhaps given the very different nature of the occasions. The December 2005 performance was a very gentle, peaceful affair, providing a backdrop for a service of thanksgiving and contained within the special atmosphere created by a crisp, bitterly cold, Christmas evening in the Fens.

On that evening the music moved softly throughout the space and found its way to the ears of quite a few people, like myself, who perhaps felt that, although they had been invited and warmly welcomed, were partly intruding on a very personal event. That heightened sense of gratitude - at being greeted into such a space – may have had a positive effect upon the quality of attention paid by those outside the immediate circle of friends and congregants.

The performance last night was, in many ways, much harder and more aggressive, although still laced with moments of calm and quiet. The soundscape bells rolled around the church as people entered and after a short period Robert sat himself down and began to mould those initial sounds into the first piece. It took a fair while for everyone to settle and it seemed that the music had to work quite hard to reach lots of us. I’m pretty sure that the PA was operating quite a bit louder than last time and some of the lower synth tones vibrated through the pews and up into the listener, not just from the speakers and down.

I feel that these soundscape probably entered different audience members at different points and I felt myself drifting in and out of the performance. I certainly felt that the latter part of each piece was much more moving - once the harmonies had thinned a little and it was possible to hear some of the unusually combinations of tones and rhythms.

After two or three pieces Robert got up and spoke to the audience, suggesting that people might like to stand up and move around to hear the variations in sound around the church. I did get up and wander about but it found I had already seated myself in an excellent listening spot, on my pew about a third of the way back. Also, and for various reasons, I found it difficult to listen and walk around at the same time.

All in all, another very special occasion, but perhaps the comparison with the earlier performance highlights how it is possible for the occasion to make the music easy to attend to (and vice versa) and that perhaps a more mature and attentive listener can truly listen whenever or wherever the music is happening."

Secondly, thanks to tsimms who took the trouble of sending a link to his review