The New World
RF@80 Vol. 11
In week 11 we feature The New World from the 1986 album Robert Fripp and The League of Crafty Guitarists - Live. This was the first album of Guitar Craft music and was performed by the students on the first Level Two course, for advancing guitarists, held at Claymont in West Virginia in December 1985. In what became a familiar part of courses, the writing, rehearsing and performance of music, often at short notice, was presented as a challenge. In this instance, the instruction came on a Thursday evening that three public performances would be taking place at George Washington University in DC at the weekend.
Robert Fripp and The League of Crafty Guitarists perform live in DC (photo: Toyah Willcox).
Although the recordings of those concerts make up the majority of the album, The New World, is a solo Fripp piece. A Frippertronic loop recorded live at the Bear’s Lair on the UC Berkeley campus in California on July 30, 1979, forms the backing over which a guitar solo was overdubbed at Arny’s Shack in Parkstone, Dorset in 1983, engineered by Tony Arnold.
The Frippertronics tour schedule for July 30, 1979.
An outstanding example of Robert’s applied Frippertronics, where the improvised performance using the twin Revox machines is replayed to create the foundation for further spontaneous improvisation. Its inclusion on an otherwise acoustic guitar recording was a simple matter of there being insufficient material from the Crafty concert to fill an album. And yet it sits very comfortably amongst the whole, providing a reminder, if any were needed, of what inspired so many to attend the courses. Essential listening.
Listen to this week’s commentary for the full story.
Download: Robert Fripp @ 80 Vol.11 The New World.
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