Fripp was often heard to say at the time that Frippertronics seeks to promote a return to an intelligent world by, amongst other things, limiting the scale of the event to record shops, offices, canteens, restaurants, with an ideal audience somewhere between 12 and 250 people. It also put forward the idea of active listening which gives the listener the same importance or status as the performer.
Unless you were there at the time it’s hard to know if either of these conditions were met but listening to this show some 42 years later, it’s astonishing how its power remains undiminished.
The gradual build-up of harmonic layers with their evolving solos has a habit of pulling you in, inviting you to follow the various tributaries of melodies and patterns. There are times when those paths are breathtaking, heartfelt, and blissful, occasionally drawing upon some motifs from Fripp’s recent past such as the direct quote of the main theme of Starless at the end of the fifth piece.
To have heard it all resonating around the space at the time must have been wonderful. Having it in this format still feels incredibly special.
