16th August 1979
“Oh, how I hope you speak English,” says a hopeful Robert Fripp after his customary 'Bonsoir' and other remarks in French after the opening two pieces. He goes on to explain his intentions behind Frippetronics underlining the importance of active listening which, he says, makes possible a very remarkable atmosphere if people concentrate.
Turning his attention to the two Revox recorders, just before he is about to cue the reels, Fripp remarks, “I do not know what is on the tape at this point but I don’t think it really matters.” Upon engaging the play knob the air is suffused with glistening trills and the pendulum-like swaying of hypnotic figures and Fripp adding fluid runs and yearning string-bends.
There’s something of an eerie mood haunting the soloing over the creation loop whose slow sweeps are augmented by needling, anxiety-laden clusters. That pensive state is immediately ameliorated by rhapsodic flurries that bounce and skip across the soothing waves of Red Two Scorer, with Fripp’s low-register work bringing to mind his beautiful and moving soloing on fripp and Eno’s Evening Star.
With these and God Save The Queen all happening in quick succession the concert feels like a kind of show reel of the kinds of ground Frippertronics might cover during a given performance. The revved-up chordal attack, similar to Sailors Tale, that swamps Zero Of The Signified and the fast-running pulses is an astonishing tour de force. With soloing sourced from a very clear audience recording, this is premier division listening.
12/08/2024
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