In an interview with the Melody Maker published just weeks before this concert, Fripp was asked why he continuing to perform Frippertronic concerts. “It gives me a way of working with intimate contact with members of an audience...It's almost an excuse to put me in a situation where one has the audience, performer and music, and in a certain kind of way something remarkable can happen. And that has happened to me, and it's not possible in a group...Frippertronics is the most enjoyable means of playing I've ever found.”
That “something remarkable” is certainly heard on this complete concert. DGM engineer, Alex Mundy, has done another first-class job matching the original tape loops to the solos taken from bootleg sources. Thanks to his efforts we can now hear the complete concert in much the same way as punters did 29 years ago. “I found this a particularly moving and beautiful performance” says an elated Mister Stormy.
Fripp’s also right when he says in the same interview that “you can't play Frippertronics and coast. It's never that safe.” After the customary assemblage of the basic loops, the second night of Fripp’s residency at the Washington Square Church in aid of a local arts organisation, has the guitarist really piling on the tension.
With each swing back and forth of the main pendulum-like note, more grit, texture and melodic information are accrued. When he does start soloing the following 26 minutes is something akin to a dam bursting with notes and ideas spilling every which way. From the tender beginnings of Loop II and Solo we move smartly to a rapid succession of bubbling notes, quickfire slides and dazzling lead lines, it builds to one of the most dramatic breakout solos yet heard on a Frippertronics download.
Similarly, if the fierce roar that opens the following track doesn’t have the hair on the back of your neck standing to attention, then it’s just possible you’ve slipped off this mortal coil to go plucking your harp in the celestial orchestra! With the kind of blistering passion peeling off the fretboard throughout this download, this gig must be regarded as absolutely essential for admirers of the guitarist’s work whether you’re a grizzled veteran, or someone new to this most individual of soundworlds.
