Alex Mundy provides a fascinating tour of the insides of another piece of King Crimson repertoire. On this occasion it’s The Sheltering Sky that is stripped back. Shorn of Bruford’s African slit drum and Adrian’s vocal loops, this alternative mix focuses on the strange textures conjured by the Roland guitar synthesiser. In June 1986, Robert spoke to Guitar Player magazine’s Tom Mullen, who had asked Fripp about using what was then a new instrument and the need to develop a specific repertoire and new ways of working with the instrument. “I suppose a good example of how Adrian Belew and I used the Roland GR-300 with King Crimson is "The Sheltering Sky." Although it’s available on the Discipline album, it was infinitely better live. When we were in Japan, Roland met with Adrian and told him that we were using their guitar synthesizers in a way that they had never anticipated. I think they expected, if you like, beginner guitarists or less proficient guitarists to play fairly simple things that sounded relatively amazing. Whereas we took them really as new instruments and tried coming up with something that was quite novel.”
