Originally this was scheduled to be the first of three ProjeKct Six dates supporting Porcupine Tree in Japan.[endtease] When Adrian became unavailable, Robert did the old “turn a disadvantage into an advantage” routine, and tackled the gigs as a solo artist.
Continuing on from the highly successful series of concerts he performed in Estonia earlier in the year (available elsewhere on the site and released as part of the Churchscapes album), Fripp opens up his first night with the sombre ruminations of the Schizoid Fantasia. You’d be hard pressed to figure out quite how these slo-mo blocks of synthetic strings equate to the stomp-on-your-bonce heaviness of Schizoid Man.That’s because they don’t. But they contain a different kind of weight and gravity all their own; the weight of experience, of loss and of a gradual coming to terms with the accumulated gravity of what has been.
The Time Stands Still segment here provides the contrast; when those ascending notes come in at around the 2.37 mark it’s like a series of doves taking flight, erupting into the light. That this is done without recourse to any extraneous grandstanding somehow makes this music all the more appealing and uplifting.
