A new collaborative album from electronic duo The Grid (aka Richard Norris & Dave Ball) and Robert Fripp, combining Fripp Soundscapes with synth, drums, programming and effects by The Grid.

 ‘Robert (Fripp) turned up with a truck load of amps and effects, two great big stacks including delay units with a 76 second delay and played and played and played.’  

Fire Tower



A few years ago, The Grid rediscovered tapes from [several recording] sessions, including unreleased tracks they’d worked up but never completed or mixed. A set of long solo drone pieces from Fripp was discovered along with a lost track that was then remixed to become ‘A Cabala Sky’ by The Grid / Fripp and released as part of Bill Brewster’s acclaimed ‘Late Night Tales’ compilation series in 2014.

Further Fripp Soundscapes from the same period were added to the mix by DGM’s David Singleton, which inspired The Grid to add new synths, drums, programming and effects to create the album ‘Leviathan’ a CD/DVD-a set.

Inspired by the mythical whale ‘Leviathan’, the biggest prehistoric whale that ever lived, Norris adds ‘I like Philip Hoare’s book “Leviathan”, which is about his obsession with whales and whale watching and the awe of coming into contact with such massive creatures.  They are quite mysterious.  Their brains are enormous, and we don’t quite know what all the brain power is doing… A bit like Robert, really’.

Having completed the album’s stereo mixes, DGM suggested the music as ideal for a full 5.1 surround mix by The Vicar. Electronic music lends itself very well to Surround Sound mixing as the listener has no fixed notion as to where any sound should emerge from. This mix features on the CD/DVD-a edition (alongside the stereo mix) and while Surround Sound is sometimes regarded as “niche” in terms of audience, the same would have been said about any form of electronic music when Fripp turned up, guitar in hand, at Eno’s place in 1972.

But then inquisitive musicians, even (perhaps especially) when they approach music from very different perspectives, often arrive at places that are as intriguing to an audience as they were to the participants.

Releases June 25, 2021

Additional links/info:
1. Burning Shed: https://burningshed.com/the-grid-fripp_leviathan_cd-dvda
2. Neu Guitars: https://neuguitars.com/2021/05/01/robert-fripp-is-back-the-grid-fripp-fire-tower-from-the-upcoming-album-leviathan-on-neuguitars-blog/
3. Resident Music: https://www.resident-music.com/productdetails&product_id=78380

Track-listing:

1. Empire*
2. Milkwood*
3. Pulse Detected
4. Loom
5. Leviathan
6. After the Rain
7. Fire Tower
8. Zhora
9. Sympatico

[* featured on this podcast: https://ambientlandscape.wordpress.com/2021/07/22/aufbruch-an-emergence/]