After five dates supporting Porcupine Tree in early June, Fripp peeled off on his own to play eight days in and around the east coast. This was gig number six.
Joining him on that tour was Hellboy supremo and Four Quarter Maintainer, Tom Redmond, who described the Centre for Ethical Culture as a “wonderful performance space.”
Soundscape fan, Hugh Shiebler, who attended several gigs from this tour recalls “Tonight there was raw emotion, the contrasts between darks and lights at times almost unbearable. We had a few moments of full-throttle knob-twirling abandon, similar to parts of "Radiophonics" and some of the early Argentina 'scapes, little symphonies of noise, pulsing scrunched and strangled into werning, whirring bursts. At those points I was reminded a bit of some of the ThrackAttack improvs, with their sense of boundaries having been transgressed, feeling that anything could happen.”
This was a Q&A show (although sadly this is not available) and Robert began the second half by playing a recording of one of the Soundscapes he performed at the WTC in 2000. Hugh Shiebler,who had been at that show as well, describes the impact of hearing this music in its new context. “It was extremely moving, and I know that I was not the only one in the audience who felt that. We were instantly connected with all of the horror that had intervened on 9/11, but we were also paying our respects. Or so it felt to me anyway. It seemed as if Robert's talk about the future reaching back to the heal the past was actually being demonstrated for us in real time. Quite profound.”
With his customary understatement, the guitarist wrote of this performance “A good show for me, with new ideas. A very generous audience, Crafties & old friends in the audience, even a good question or two.”
Buyer beware: there are several pops and clicks dotted about, as well as a touch of distortion on tracks four and five. Part of this concert (track5)was used on Fripp's Love Cannot Bear album released in 2005.
