Washington Square Church New York USA

“TO ME, ROBERT Fripp has always meant the nastiest riffs you could wish to cower from. I mean NASTY. Malevolent, grating sounds which fair oozed teeth-grating stark power. And his solos could kill.” So wrote journalist Kris Needs in 1979. Yet if Needs is right then for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. That opposite might well be in the music contained on the third night of Fripp’s residency at the Washington Square Church.

The mood, as Fripp solos across these loops is contemplative and in places rather sombre and there’s such a bitter-sweet beauty dripping from Fripp’s fingers. This is especially evident on Loop 27th And Solo II with its intense scrabbling runs, sustained highpoints and the divebomb as he detunes his string in the last few minutes.

There’s always a sense with Fripp’s soaring melodic lines that he’s looking for something that remains tantalisingly just out of reach. Perhaps this aspect is what gives rise to the bubbling drama that’s inherent in much of this music?

In a concert painstakingly restored from the original reel to reel loops and soloing, engineer Alex Mundy has united these two distinct and distinctive sounds into one compelling suite.

AUDIO SOURCE: Quarter Inch Reel To Reel Tapes

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