WORCESTER SOUNDSCAPES REVIEWED
Posted by Sid Smith on Jun 13, 2006 - This post is archived and may no longer be relevant

Thanks to Pete for sending in this review of soundscapes in Worcester.

 

Many thanks to Mr. Fripp and team (and to nearly all of the audience!) for last Monday's lunchtime concert at Worcester Cathedral. It was a hot day, so my trains were late, but I got lucky and somehow arrived early.

 

The 40 minutes of Robert 'soundchecking' was a delightful surprise, although it took me a while to decide that it would be okay to sit down! (I had to dissuade myself from taking a photo first). It was good simply to see him there, alive and well and doing his thing. As he span dials and twiddled knobs he set up some gently twinkling, sparse loops which became less 'test' and ever more musical, even once he had left the stage and disappeared for a while... Lots of people seemed to suddenly arrive at once - there were quite a few teenage music-students (with guitar bags and chit-chat and an IRON MAIDEN t-shirt!)... RF had reappeared seated in the middle of the crowd which had formed around him, and next thing he was up and introduced by a priest.

 

He played two pieces, with a short address (no Q&A) and thanks at the end. During each piece the music really took me somewhere - I couldn't understand how it could be so tranquil and yet get so LOUD and energisingly SOARING! And I couldn't understand, either time, how I'd gone from being annoyed by whispers and laboured breathing, to a state of concentrated quiet. It was great to see Fripp at last, but even better with eyes closed! The music was subtle, powerful, life-affirming... ...and, after 'chilling' in the cathedral for an hour and a half, Fripp's heavy-looking leather(?) jacket seemed a VERY GOOD IDEA. Thanks again! pete

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