A sedate start to Fripp's 12th gig on the G4 tour with Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Kenny Wayne Shepherd. The concert is characterised by a sombre mood that ebb and flows, creating an air that is both melancholic and questioning. Though these soundscapes did little to win over the majority of the crowds who'd come to see their guitar heroes engaging in some traditional shredding, they provide some of Fripp’s most rewarding work of the period.
A slow-burning gig content to take its time with a series of slow advances and small regroupings, just as Space Music II appears to reach a climax of sorts, it veers into a moment suspended in time. The effect is stunning.
On the tour Fripp was sometimes joined by other musicians. On this occasion he is then joined by Mike Keneally, best known for his work with Frank Zappa and an eclectic solo career.
The tone Keneally uses evokes a younger Fripp; creating intense, rippling clusters;bending notes, plying them into emotive twists and turns that pull at the head and heart. It's a skillful blending of the two players although there are times when it's akin to listening to the same guitarist thirty years apart.
Keneally is clearly an admirer of Fripp’s work, and it turns out the feeling is mutual. "Mike Keneally was able to solo over [Soundscapes] in a way I have never been able to achieve for myself. He gave me answers to questions I had felt for myself, but never had the courage or capacity to find an answer".
The wonderfully elegiac Terror, Dread and Celebration provides a beautiful, if typically oblique, finish to the concert.
DGM engineer, Alex Mundy notes that Robert has written on the Dat tape from which this concert is taken “This may be the debut of Space Music, as such.” Alex goes on to say “Robert listened to it on 7 Jan 1999, and has given it a red Star (which at the time meant he liked it) and also has written “Yes! Yes!””
