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The Process . . .

#ambient/#experimental/#classical/#techno

Robert Fripp, Washington Square Church

A new set of Frippertronics from 1981 will be released in CD/DVD and 2LP format in April 2022. These live Frippertronics performances have been taken from recordings in New York City between July and August 1981 and have been mixed and produced by David Singleton from audio painstakingly restored by Alex R Mundy. 

The set is regarded as the finest example of Frippertronics in performance.  The DVD features the material in 24/48 hi-res stereo and DTS-HD Surround Sound (Quad 4.1). The 2LP edition is on 200gram vinyl and has been cut by Jason Mitchel at LOUD Mastering. 

This is the Frippertronics album that should have come out in 1982. The forty years that have passed have done nothing to diminish the power of the music. The material appears on both discs with the DVD offering the audio in hi-res stereo and DTS Surround Sound, the nature of the loops lending themselves ideally to this method of production


The series of Frippertronic concerts were held in aid of a Soho-based theatre group and they find the guitarist using his technique of slowly building the music from the ground up, step by step. It’s an approach which demonstrates how the addition or subtraction of a single note can change the entire mood of a piece as we move in the space of a few bars from an atmosphere of pensive anticipation to one of yearning hope.

In an interview with the Melody Maker published just weeks before these concerts, Fripp was asked why he continuing to perform Frippertronic concerts. “It gives me a way of working with intimate contact with members of an audience…It’s almost an excuse to put me in a situation where one has the audience, performer and music, and in a certain kind of way something remarkable can happen. And that has happened to me, and it’s not possible in a group…Frippertronics is the most enjoyable means of playing I’ve ever found.”

The Washington Square Church performances represent some of the finest recorded examples of the Frippertronics series. Unlike other such recordings where the loops are on tape in the DGM archive but the solos require painstaking matching of existing audience recordings and bootlegs to those loops to complete the picture, the solos for these shows were actually recorded but not labelled as to which solos matched which loops. The matched pairs only became possible when DGM audio engineer Alex R. Mundy realised that the loops had been picked up, at microscopic audio levels, by the guitar pick-ups playing the solos, allowing for identification. David Singleton was then able to mix and produce the resulting audio. 

The music played more than rewards such efforts as, culled from the shows, (more complete versions appear on the “Exposures” boxed set), Fripp appears to explore every sonic avenue available to him as a guitar player – mesmerising loops, overlaid with beautiful solos, fast running ‘Frame by Frame’ style lines against a looped background, powerful ‘Scary Monsters’ type guitar noises and more besides.

TRACKLISTING

1. WASHINGTON SQUARE I
2. WASHINGTON SQUARE II
3. WASHINGTON SQUARE III
4. WASHINGTON SQUARE IV
5. WASHINGTON SQUARE V
6. WASHINGTON SQUARE VI
7. WASHINGTON SQUARE VII
8. WASHINGTON SQUARE VIII
9. WASHINGTON SQUARE IX
10. WASHINGTON SQUARE X
11. WASHINGTON SQUARE XI  

After completing the first round of concerts with a revived King Crimson starting in May 1981, Fripp headed over to the USA where he began a week-long residency at Washington Square United Methodist Church on 135 W Fourth Street in New York. Built in 1860, the church had historically been home to many congregations but in more recent years had become the venue for numerous cultural & arts organisations. 

Released on April 29th 2022 you can pre-order CD/DVD from 
Inner Knot (USA),
Amazon and
Burning Shed (UK / EU) 

Overload Lady, by Mick Harris & Eraldo Bernocchi

From 1997 to 1998, in two years only, Mick Harris has released 3 albums and 2 EPs for Sub Rosa, two in collaboration with Eraldo Bernocchi, one with Neil Harvey (PCM). Overload Lady was created and mixed in The Box, late december 1996, Birmingham, and published in early 1997.

Michael John Harris started out in the 1980s as a drummer working with various punk rock and grindcore bands (most notably pioneering grindcore band Napalm Death); as a drummer he is generally credited with popularizing the blast beat, which has since become a key component of much of extreme metal and grindcore. Since the mid-1990s, Harris has worked primarily in electronic and ambient music, his main projects being Scorn and Lull. According to Allmusic, Harris’s “genre-spanning activities have done much to jar the minds, expectations, and record collections of audiences previously kept aggressively opposed.” While in Napalm Death, Harris also played drums for Doom and Extreme Noise Terror, and participated in a side project with Mitch Harris called Defecation, which produced two records, Purity Dilution and Intention Surpassed, through Nuclear Blast, but this last one just with Mitch Harris.

Eraldo Bernocchi is an Italian musician, producer and sound designer. He created in 1985 the project Sigillum S. Later, he expanded the cadre of musicians he would work with to include people such as Mick Harris, Jim Plotkin and Bill Laswell. These collaborations have up to this day provided an array of releases and shows. Along with the aforementioned artists, the last 15 years have seen collaborations with musicians and artists including Harold Budd, Russell Mills, Toshinori Kondo, Raiz, Almamegretta, Thomas Fehlmann, Zu, DJ Olive, and a host of others. 

Released December 9, 2016

Not Guitar: Touch Guitarists Markus Reuter & Trey Gunn Conjure Cosmic Tones & Soundscapes from Helix

Trey Gunn and Markus Reuter (Live at SeaProg 2019)

by Barry Cleveland
Reposted courtesy of Model Citizens, the Line 6 blog

Touch guitarists Markus Reuter and Trey Gunn are singular artists who play extended-range instruments that encompass both the guitar and bass registers, and which are played by tapping the strings with both hands, much like the Chapman Stick (from which they were derived conceptually). Reuter and Gunn also deftly deploy Helix amp and effects processors when crafting their idiosyncratic tones and expansive soundscapes.

Reuter has been a member of Stick Men (alongside Tony Levin and Pat Mastelotto) for more than a decade, as well as performing solo and with a variety other adventurous ensembles, including Centrozoon and Tuner. He has released eight albums as a leader; collaborated on recordings with Ian Boddy, Robert Rich, Stephan Thelen, and other artists; and appeared as a guest on dozens of additional recordings. He is also an educator and hosts the video program Living the Dream. Reuter primarily plays 8- and 10-string Touch Guitars, which he designed, and currently relies on Helix Floor and HX Stomp processors to generate nearly all of his extraordinary sounds.

Gunn was a member of King Crimson from 1994 to 2003, as well as recording and performing with dozens of other luminaries, such as David Sylvian, Vernon Reid, Brian Eno, John Paul Jones, Steven Wilson, and Robert Fripp. He is a member of TU, KTU, 3Below, Quodia, and The Security Project, and has released 14 solo albums. Gunn also composes music for film and television, teaches, and runs the 7d Media label. His principal instrument is the 10-string Warr Guitar, which he developed with Mark Warr, and he has incorporated Helix Native into his live and recording rigs.

Both musicians studied Guitar Craft with Robert Fripp for a number of years and were active in the associated community in various roles.

When did you first begin using Line 6 processors?

Trey: I began using the original red POD back in 1999 or 2000. I can’t remember exactly why I was drawn to it, other than that it was the first amp-simulation device and there was nothing else like it at the time. That was also about the time that Tony Levin and I were both playing around with using distortion on the bass and we were trying to figure out how to do it without losing the bottom end. So, I ran the dry signal parallel to the distorted POD signal, using a giant rig with 16 audio loops, which is ridiculous by today’s standards, when you can do the same thing within Helix. And I actually used two PODs, one for each side of the instrument, as there are individual outputs for the guitar and bass sides. The PODs were mounted on a shelf with zip ties.

Markus: Stick Men has been touring the world for the past decade and I have used Line 6 gear for nearly the entire time, beginning with the POD HD500 on the second or third tour. It had that small display, but at least you could modify the signal path a little bit, and I liked the way it sounded. For me, all the concerns about “authentic” tones are really irrelevant, as when I plug my instrument into a modeler, it isn’t going to sound like anything else anyway. So, with that I was able to find my own sounds, including synth sounds, as there was an onboard monophonic string synth that was very useful for doing soundscape stuff. I also liked the distortions, as they were grittier and more raw-sounding than those in other processors, in a way that really worked for me. But even back then, I was already dreaming about something very much like Helix, so when it appeared it was literally a dream come true. The inserts, the four effects loops, the multiple outputs, Snapshots—all those things. And the ease of use is still unmatched. I could go on and on, because I really love that thing!

(Read more)

aufbruch [an emergence]

a u f b r u c h [an emergence] | post-rock/noise/glitch/soft-techno/ambient | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77:29

A remix or, more precisely, a repositioning of several of the tracks from the J. Peter Schwalm/Markus Reuter release (our review of the album can be found here); mixed with some new Robert Fripp/Grid, Rain Dogs (thanks Gareth), Nicola Di Croce (from 901 Editions), Iluiteq (courtesy of n5MD) & several other newer releases (as well as a few older chestnuts) that have hit the studio’s inbox as of late.

The f-l-o-w & installation of music always has to make sense to me: that usually takes the form of slow-to-fast, & softest-to-loudest — and this follows a similarly pattered pathway of aural exploration.

Thanks to Lee @ RareNoise Records for the promo pack that allowed me to steep in this while selecting the five tracks utilized for the project. The goal was to create a tribute to the album, while at the same time crafting a stand-alone mix/podcast; hopefully we have achieved those ends.

Download via Bandcamp

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01 Atmospheric Disturbances – Yuichiro’s Pupils Dilated Rapidly
02 Robert Fripp/Ambient Landscape – Water Music (swag+vocal edit)
03 Brian Eno with Daniel Lanois & Roger Eno – Signals
04 J. Peter Schwalm & Markus Reuter – Lebewohl
05 The Rain Dogs – Colour Fields ii
06 The Grid & Robert Fripp – Empire
07 Nicola Di Croce – Tone IV (excerpt)
08 J. Peter Schwalm & Markus Reuter – Von Anbeginn (excerpt)
09 Iluiteq – Glacier Ice Falling into the Sea
10 Robert Fripp & The Grid – Milkwood
11 J. Peter Schwalm & Markus Reuter – Abbau
12 David Torn – O.K. Shorty
13 J. Peter Schwalm & Markus Reuter – Der lange Weg
14 Ümlaut – To Leave it as It Is
15 J. Peter Schwalm & Markus Reuter – Der Aufbruch

Aufbruch . . . a Review

“Aufbruch” translates from German into “departure” or “emergence.”

In listening to the 9 tracks that make up this new release (July 16th on RareNoise Records) from J. Peter Schwalm & Markus Reuter, what “emerges” is deconstruction; what emerges is fragmentation; and what emerges  are the disjointed pieces of a disunited culture, reassembled into artistically crafted slabs of slightly caustic, slightly melodic & sometimes jarring sound.  

The nine predominantly post-rock/experimental techno aural constructions are seamlessly blended; incorporating Reuter’s touch guitar (and its plethora of sounds, from electric/acoustic to atmospheric drone) & Schwalm’s multiple & leveraged electronic contributions. Some titles (Der Aufbruch, Von Anbeginn, Der lange Weg & Abbau) are painted with a darker perspective, others (Lebewohl & Abschied) are lighter while still others (Ruckzug, Losgelost & perhaps Ein Riss) occupy a “middle ground“ of timbre & tension.

As for my personal favorites . . . the reader/listener will have to wait until after the album’s release, as we’re crafting a mix/podcast to encapsulate our audiological thoughts on this masterwork.

ALL of the futuristic pieces are enjoyable for the experimental/soft-techno & slightly caustic sound-loving sonic aficionado: dark swashes of chaos, subtle bass-like groanings, explosions of gritty sonance, electro-acoustic strumming, fragmented beats and dulled thuds & thumps (along with several instances of angelic vocals) create a realistic look at the present environment while casting a vision & pointing us toward a better, more united & sustainable tomorrow.

The listener will be the final arbiter of what emerges for them – but for this listener a real sense of departure from industrialization to a not totally clear, slightly dystopian future emerges; yet with a glimmer of hope for humankind.

. . . and all that in under fifty minutes!              

~Ambient Landscape, June 30^th, 2021

____________________________________________________________________________
File under #MinimalTechno / #DarkAmbient / #PostRock / #TechNoise / #Glitch

Review Rating: 4.5 (of 5)

J. Peter Schwalm: Synths, Pianos, live treatments, electronic percussion and programming
Markus Reuter: Touch Guitars® AU8 and U8 Deluxe, Soundscapes, Electronics
Sophie Tassignon: Vocals on „Lebewohl“ and „Losgelöst“

Aufbruch (samples), by J. Peter Schwalm & Markus Reuter
Bandcamp (pre-order)
Soundcloud

The GRID / Fripp / Leviathan

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

l a n t e r n a

lanterna | Ambient/Jazz/Post-Rock/Experimental | 87:04

This was my first mix:
Begun in 1999 (via cassette), revised in 2004 (CD) then in 2014  for its 15 year anniversary – digitally eclipsing the CD edition to 94+ minutes, ‘lanterna‘ (named after & wrapped around the classic album by Henry Frayne) was my first real (segued) mix, has earned numerous trades/requests, feedback from Henry Frayne himself…& has now been updated with new opening & closing tracks…(including a short composition from Pink Floyd’s The Endless River).

…a personal, ether/guitar-driven, ambient/experimental favorite that has held together over the years.

Update/ June 2019 (20 year anniversary):
Track 1 was swapped out for ‘What Floats Beneath’, by Michele Rabbia & Gianluca Petrella & Eivind Aarset (from Lost River; ECM, May 2019) – The guitar work on this track fits in perfectly with the aural themes of this project. Now, at long last, this mix has been officially stamped “Complete” by our dedicated engineering staff.
: )
87:04 (headphones-earbuds required)

Download via Bandcamp

01 Michele Rabbia & Gianluca Petrella & Eivind Aarset – What Floats Beneath
02 Henry Frayne – Dawn
03 Brian Eno – Stars
04 Henry Frayne – Ethernet
05 Oystein Sevag/Lakey Patey – Wind Wave
06 Jeff Pearce – Unrequited
07 Tim Story – Sister of the Flood
08 Henry Frayne – Dark Spring
09 R.E. Young – Magister Ludi
10 Henry Frayne – End of the Tunnel
11 Andy Summers – The Somnambulist
12 Henry Frayne – Passage
13 Robert Fripp – 1985
14 Channel Light Vessel – Train Traveling North
15 Henry Frayne – Silent Hills
16 David Gilmour – Mihalis
17 Tangerine Dream – Dolls in the Shadow
18 Henry Frayne – Achieving Oneness
19 Virlyn – Fjord
20 Pink Floyd – The Lost Art of Conversation
(interpolating a few seconds of Pete Kelly’s ‘Peace’ at track’s end)

Original Cassette & CD covers

additional information . . .