Andy Summers & Robert Fripp – The Complete Recordings 1981 – 1984

What does it sound like?:

This 3cd plus bluray set rounds up the music produced in the early eighties from a collaboration between Fripp and Summers. I Advance Masked was the first fruit of their labours, appearing in 1982 and comprising 13 pieces of instrumental music, here supplemented by four bonus tracks. The music ranges from being quite accessible to completely avant garde, with Fripp often setting the tone of proceedings. It reminded me somewhat of his work with Eno, particularly the Evening Star album. The duo reunited in 1984 to produce a second set, Bewitched, which I think is the more easily accessible of the two albums. This time it seems to be Summers leading the way, introducing a drum machine and more electronic music into the equation, and taking things in a more conventional rock focussed direction compared to its texture driven predecessor. The original ten pieces, again all instrumentals, are now boosted by a pair of bonus tracks. A third cd, Mother Hold The Candle steady, has been complied from previously unreleased material from the sessions which has been newly mixed for the occasion, and rounds off the set very nicely. As you’d anticipate, the bluray has surround mixes of all three albums, alongside new stereo mixes and remastered versions of the original mixes, but sadly there’s no Atmos mix included. There is a further bonus with a fly on the wall audio documentary, Can We Record Tony, complied from Fripp’s archive cassettes of the pair’s improvisations and conversations. (an edited version of this also appears o the third cd). The whole shooting match is accompanied by a very good informative booklet with detailed sleeve notes from Crimson expert Sid Smith based on new interviews with the participants, and an interesting Tale of The Tapes piece by David Singleton detailing how the unreleased music was discovered. All in all, this set is a fine and comprehensive summation of the innovate improvisations the two musicians produced in this fertile collaborative period.

What does it all *mean*?

This is as good as the Crimson box sets, and in keeping with them is also very sensibly priced which makes a pleasant change these days!

Goes well with…

A bit of research – I seem to vaguely recall a Crimson piece using the title Mother Hold The Candle Steady, from the Thrak era I think – I must dig back in my collection and investigate further.

Release Date:

Out now

Might suit people who like…

Frippertronics, avant garde music in general, King Crimson.

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