In the second of two performances that day in what he describes in his diary as a “secular cathedral”, Fripp’s muse seems somewhat forbidding in places. Paradise Lost fills the entire building all the way to the very top of the glass atrium with dense banks of ascending orchestral strings. As ever in soundscapes, no matter how bleak or mournful things become, a sense of hope is never far away, and Affirming shines light in what had become at times, a dark desolate space.
The Hover section is interesting, as though it were in the middle of a typical transitional approach (the tinkling bell tones), but then caught in the moment - hovering indeed - into a meditative piece based around three descending notes.
Here, the Threnody motif is less angular and dissonant than on other occasions, consisting of slow-moving waves of sustained notes underscored with descending basslines that are intense but relatively smooth and static. Nevertheless, The build-up of tension in the final five minutes of this piece, and the inevitable release when it comes in the closing moments, is both devastating and utterly beautiful. As the chorus reduces to an echo of the opening melody, everything else fades away, leaving a solitary drone. Remarkable music.
