The complete list of 2024 fantastic new releases from DGM and DGM & Panegyric.
May 2025 be all we wish it to be!
DGM & PANEGERYC
Red - 50th Anniversary Edition
Available as a 4-disc boxed set (2 Blu-ray and 2 CDs) and as a 2-LP 200-gram vinyl set. Detailed information & order > here <
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USA - 50th Anniversary Edition
1974, at the Casino Arena, Asbury Park, New Jersey, King Crimson tapped into a ferocious energy that never stopped burning.
This concert was recorded to multi-track tape and today, 50 years later, the full concert (2013 mix by Robert Fripp, David Singleton & Tony Arnold) has been reissued as a 3,000 copies limited edition on 200gram coloured (blue sparkle) Vinyl and being released on digital platforms: Spotify, Apple, Deezer, Amazon.
The double (blue sparkle) 200g vinyl is available on Burning Shed. Detailed information & order > here <
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Sheltering Skies (Live in Fréjus, August 27th 1982)
The complete King Crimson performance across 2 LPs pressed on 200gram vinyl or a single CD, both completed with the addition of the recording of ‘The Sheltering Sky’ from the previous night’s concert at Cap d’Agde. Detalied information & order > here <
DGM's DIGITAL RELEASES 2024
ROBERT FRIPP
Soundscapes
(Available as a complete tour bundle or individual dates)
Release date: January 8th, 2024
Recorded between 12th - 15th October, they document Robert's appearances in 2009 on Porcupine Tree's The Incident tour, when Robert occupied what he called 'the Fruit and Vegetable slot.
October 12th, 2009 - Heineken Hall, Amsterdam
October 13th, 2009 - Olympia, Paris
October 14th, 2009 - Ancienne Belgique, Brussels
October 15th, 2009 - Capitol, Hanover
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April 28th, 1998 - The Gates Of Paradise (album)
Release date: February 10th, 2024
"Fripp continues his Soundscape series with this typically evocative piece. As with his other work of this period, the theme touches on devotional and spiritual matters, with Fripp painting challenging and solitary impressions with "Frippertronic" brushstrokes. The new age set will most likely balk at his more dissonant passages, but King Crimson fans and those with a taste for the unusual will delight in his ascetic excess." . Tim Sheridan - AllMusic
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October 3rd, 1994 - Soundscapes · Live in Argentina 1999 (album)
Digital release date: February 25th, 2024
The album was the first in a run of Soundscape albums released during the 1990s including A Blessing Of Tears, Radiophonics, and That Which Passes. Along with a new cover featuring a John Miller painting, it also comes with a bonus track, 2006, which originally appeared on the DGM sampler, Sometimes God Hides, as well as an updated PDF booklet.
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1997 Soundscapes
(Available as a complete tour bundle or individual dates)
Release date: March 4th, 2024
These performances hail from December 1997 when Robert was touring the USA a few days after ProjeKct One's shows in London. They are available as a bundle or individual downloads. Mr.Stormy adds, "The 16 December DAT tape was blank, so sadly this show is not part of the bundle."
December 10th, 1997 - Birchmere Theater, Alexandria
December 11th, 1997 - Painted Bride Art Center, Philadelphia
December 12th, 1997 - Painted Bride Art Center, Philadelphia
December 13th, 1997 - The Bottom Line, New York (1)
December 13th, 1997 - The Bottom Line, New York (2)
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Churchscapes
(Available as a complete tour bundle or individual dates)
Release date: March 18th, 2024
The Estonian churchscapes represent some of Fripp’s deepest work to these ears, so it’s especially welcome to finally be able to hear the whole tour rather than the excepts that appeared on 2007’s At The End Of Time CD release.
August 22nd, 2006 - Pühavaimu Kirik, Tallinna
August 23rd, 2006 - Eliisabeti Kirik, Pärnu
August 24th, 2006 - Lossikirik, Haapsalu
August 25th, 2006 - Jaani Kirik, Viljandi (previously available individually)
August 26th, 2006 - Jaani Kirik, Tartu (previously available individually)
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2007 Soundscapes
(Available as a complete tour bundle or individual dates)
Release date: April 8th, 2024 -
...taken from Robert's tour of Argentina in 2007 with the League Of Crafty Guitarists. Please note that only Robert's soundscapes are available. While most of the soundscapes are previously unreleased, Mendoza III from the 2nd June was chosen by Robert for no. 27 in the Music for Quiet Moments series, Mendoza III from the 3rd June was No. 1 MFQM, and Buenos Aires III was No. 50 MFQM.
May 30th, 2007 - Teatro La Comedia, Rosario
June 1st, 2007 - Teatro Independencia, Mendoza
June 2nd, 2007 - Teatro Independencia, Mendoza
June 3rd, 2007 - Teatro Independencia, Mendoza
June 6th, 2007 - ND Ateneo, Buenos Aires
June 7th, 2007 - ND Ateneo, Buenos Aires
June 8th, 2007 - ND Ateneo, Buenos Aires
June 9th, 2007 - ND Ateneo, Buenos Aires
June 10th, 2007 - ND Ateneo, Buenos Aires
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1998 Soundscapes
(Available as a complete tour bundle or individual dates)
Release date: June 4th, 2024
While most of the soundscapes in this bundle are previously unreleased, the one from November 18th evening (the second performance at World Financial Center in New York) was already available on the site.
November 13th, 1998 - Imac, Huntington
November 15th, 1998 - Mama Kin Music Hall, Boston
November 16th, 1998 - Iron Horse, Northampton
November 18th, 1998 - World Financial Center, New York (1)
November 18th, 1998 - World Financial Center, New York (2)
November 19th, 1998 - World Financial Center, New York (1)
November 19th, 1998 - World Financial Center, New York (2)
November 22nd, 1998 - The Painted Bride, Philadelphia (1)
November 22nd, 1998 - The Painted Bride, Philadelphia (2)
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2006 Soundscapes
(Available as a complete tour bundle or individual dates)
Release date: July 22nd, 2024
Taken from RF's tour of Italy in 2006 with The League Of Crafty Guitarists.
June 20th, 2006 - Parco della Musica, Auditorium Santa Cecilia, Rome
June 21st, 2006 - Centro Ottava, Rome
June 23rd, 2006 - Mundus Festival, Piazza Prampolini, Reggio Emilia
June 24th, 2006 - Teatro Palamostre, Udine
June 26th, 2006 - Forte Belvedere, Firenze
June 28th, 2006 - Pop Eye Festival, Piazza Mentana, La Spezia
June 29th, 2006 - Vila Alcornati, Milan
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1979 Frippertronics
(Available as a complete tour bundle or individual dates)
Release date: August 12th, 2024
August 5th, 1979 - Robson Square Theatre, Vancouver
August 6th, 1979 - Robson Square Theatre, Vancouver
August 7th, 1979 - Provincial Museum, Edmonton
August 9th, 1979 - Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg
August 11th, 1979 - Bathurst Street Theatre, Toronto
August 11th - Bathurst Street Theatre, Toronto (Audience bootleg synched to original 1/4" Reel recording)
August 12th - Bathurst Street Theatre, Toronto
August 12th - Bathurst Street Theatre, Toronto (Audience bootleg synched to original 1/4" Reel recording)
August 13th - National Art Center Studio, Ottawa (Audience bootleg synched to original 1/4" Reel recording)
August 15th - Cafe Campus, Quebec City
August 15th - Cafe Campus, Quebec City (Audience bootleg synched to original 1/4" Reel recording)
August 16th - Cafe Campus, Quebec City
August 15th - Cafe Campus, Quebec City (Audience bootleg synched to original 1/4" Reel recording)
August 17th - Le Pretzel Enchaine, Montreal
August 19th - Le Pretzel Enchaine, Montreal (Originally broadcast on local radio)
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1997 Soundscapes
(Available as a complete tour bundle or individual dates)
Release date: September 16th, 2024
Taken from the G3 tour (Robert Fripp, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani). This is an 11 date tour, from which 9 dates are available: 6 newly added and 3 that where already on the website (19th, 21st, and 30th of June).
If Frippertronics traded in quickly-resolving themes that served up a kind of instant gratification, his soundscapes are the very opposite; their glacial pace enabling the sweet melodies to graciously unfurl in an slo-mo ecstasy.
June 19th, 1997 - Meadows Music Theatre, Hartford
June 20th, 1997 - Jones Beach Ampitheatre, Wantaugh
June 21st, 1997 - PNC Art Centre, Holmdel NJ
June 22nd, 1997 - Harbourlights Pavilion, Boston
June 24th, 1997 - Nautica Stage, Cleveland
June 25th, 1997 - Finger Lakes Arts Center, New York
June 26th, 1997 - New Pine Knob Music Theatre, Clarkston
June 29th, 1997 - Riviera, Chicago
June 30th, 1997 - Northrup Auditorium, Minneapolis
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1998 Soundscapes
(Available as a complete tour bundle or individual dates)
Release date: October 18th, 2024
Taken from RF's tour in January 1998, a month before going on tour with ProjeKct Two. Each date is available individually and as part of the six dates bundle (from which January 12th was previously available)
A range of emotional responses that (to these ears) includes a sense of peace, emotional fragility, and a thread of spellbinding vitality, this piece in particular, as well as the concert in general, represents an incredibly fertile period for Fripp’s Soundscaping efforts.
January 11th, 1998 - Shank Hall, Milwaukee
January 12th, 1998 - Park West, Chicago (previously available)
January 14th, 1998 - The Phoenix, Toronto
January 18th, 1998 - Iron Horse, Northampton
January 19th, 1998 - Club Soda, Montreal
January 20th, 1998 - D'Autueil Club, Quebec City
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Love Cannot Bear, Soundscapes · Live in The USA (album)
Digital release date: November 11th, 2024
Download & information here.
Though several tracks are taken from a series of dates in the USA in June 2005 (New York, Massachusetts, Huntington) there are also performances dating from 1995 (the solemn Midnight Blue taken from A Blessing Of Tears), 1997 (On My Mother’s Birthday and 2001). In light of this, Love Cannot Bear feels akin to an audio documentary spanning Fripp’s many years of patient inquiry into the possibilities of soundscapes and its related activities.
Love Cannot Bear offers a guided tour to those places of reflection where soundscapes emerge; places of mourning, quietude, foreboding, lamentation. As Fripp explains in his sleeve notes “Affirmations, statements & declarations of faith that the creation is benevolent (despite all evidence to the contrary) are, in these Soundscape settings, mainly diatonic. As such, they are often easier listening than the atonal, polytonal & chromatic music of other Soundscape areas.”
1995 Churchscapes
(Available as a complete tour bundle or individual dates)
Release date: December 5th, 2024
RF described this period in his live work as being “part of an ongoing series which has the aim of finding ways in which intelligence and music, definition and discovery, courtesy an reciprocation may enter into the act of music for both musician and audience.”
Selections from these four performances were edited and incorporated into That Which Passes, released in 1996. This is the first time that the complete performances have been made available.
September 8th, 1995 - Washington Square Church, New York (1)
September 8th, 1995 - Washington Square Church, New York (2)
September 9th, 1995 - Washington Square Church, New York (1)
September 9th, 1995 - Washington Square Church, New York (2)
KING CRIMSON
February 26th, 1982 - Rutgers Gym Rutgers University, New Brunswick
Release date: January 15th, 2024
Performing material from Discipline, the quartet also features new songs that would be recorded for the Beat album the following month, including the rarely played number, Absent Lovers.
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July 4th, 1984 - The Agora, West Hartford
Release date: February 5th, 2024
This has to be one of the most memorable Entry Of The Crims in the archive. Starting with a strident rendition of the UK’s national anthem, the notes transition into The Star-Spangled Banner, all of this sonic flag-waving is Fripp’s tip of the hat to the fact that the gig taking is place on America’s Independence Day.
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February 25th, 1982 - Landmark Theatre, Syracuse
Release date: February 19th, 2024
A great-sounding audience recording that captures the band on their fourth gig of 1982, consolidating older songs and evolving their newer ones. “If you don’t mind I’m going to take my tie off and tell you about the next song,” says Adrian Belew halfway through a set that’s filled with new material.
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June 2nd, 1984 - Greek Theatre, Berkeley
Release date: March 11th, 2024
The previous month the group had toured Japan and were now three days into their last tour of the 1980s. “Hello, good evening, it’s great to be here back in San Francisco, Berkeley that is,” laughs Adrian Belew at his brief bout geographical disorientation. [...] “As I mentioned and you probably know, we have a new album out. Maybe many more to come, who knows?” Belew’s wry announcement near the end of the concert belies the fact that the band knew that nothing else was in the diary after their final appearance in Canada the next month.
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July 26th, 1982 - Toads Place, New Haven Conn. (1)
Release date: April 2nd, 2024
When the Crims were embarking on their first tour following the release of Beat...
July 26th, 1982 - Toads Place, New Haven Conn. (2)
Release date: April 2nd, 2024
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February 20th, 1982 - Agora, Columbus
Release date: April 17th, 2024
King Crimson’s first night of their first North American tour of 1982 finds the band in very good form in this rather trebly and occasionally brittle-sounding audience recording. In addition to playing all of the Discipline album, though not necessarily in the same running order as it appears on the record, the team run some new numbers past the very appreciative and volubly excited audience.
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July 15th, 1971 - Town Hall, Watford
Release date: April 22nd, 2024
It captures the band during the making of the Islands album as they play to an enthusiastic crowd. If you listen very carefully to this audience recording you might hear the cheers of a 13-year-old lad in the crowd called Jakko Jakszyk...
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February 22nd, 1982 - The Second Chance, Ann Arbor (1)
Release date: May 6th, 2024
Third date into the first North American tour and the Crims are doing two gigs in one night again. It does make you wonder how they do it. With the first show starting at 9.00pm the quartet hurl themselves into the set with evident enthusiasm. Although the tape quality is pretty variable throughout the show, it’s possible to get a sense of how inventive the material sounds.
February 22nd, 1982 - The Second Chance, Ann Arbor (2)
Release date: May 6th, 2024
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Live In Montreal · July 11, 1984
King Crimson Collectors' Club
Release date: May 23rd, 2024
"With this last release in the King Crimson Collectors' Club series, the complete final two shows of KC 1981-84 are now available for the first time."
Robert Fripp
Easter Saturday 30th. March, 2024;
Bredonborough, Middle England.
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June 5th, 1984 - Greek Theatre, Los Angeles
Release date: June 17th, 2024
Just as Belew is about to make another announcement, Levin taps out the prelude to Elephant Talk but Belew signals him to stop. “Tony Levin’s an excitable guy,” he explains. “It also happens to be Tony Levin’s birthday today” causing sustained applause and appreciation from the lively crowd who begin singing Happy Birthday accompanied by some non-scripted Sticking from the man himself. Quite a moment!
June 6th, 1984 - Greek Theatre, Los Angeles
Release date: June 17th, 2024
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July 29th, 1982 - Merriweather Post Pavillion, Columbia
Release date: July 8th, 2024
This audience recording is a little boomy and tinny in places but it does present a perfectly acceptable audio snapshot of Crimson doing their thing and doing it very well indeed with Red sounding particularly impressive and magisterial. The Howler sounding a tad more vital here than on its studio counterpart is a good example of how the live situation alters or raises the state of a piece of music.
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July 7th, 1984 - CNE Bandshell, Toronto
Release date: August 5th, 2024
Beginning with a beautiful, haunting Frippertronics loop drifting through the air, Fripp assertively decorates it with lines that sound like outtakes from a David Bowie session. Tony Levin then adds more contemplative layers reminiscent of his work on the studio version of Sartori In Tangiers, followed by Belew’s expressive banshee howling and finally the strange liquid bell-like sounds from Bruford. Such is the quality of this piece when Larks’ Tongues In Aspic abruptly cuts in it feels like a wrench.
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September 27th, 1982 - Casino, Paris (1)
Release date: August 19th, 2024
Everyone knows that for a gig to really fly you have to have two things happen. First, the crowd has to be on their A-game and second, the band has to be on top of theirs. Happily, both of these essential ingredients are very definitely present in the first of two shows in one evening.
September 27th, 1982 - Casino, Paris (2)
Release date: August 19th, 2024
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June 27th, 1984 - The Pier, New York
Release date: September 2nd, 2024
There’s a little run emanating from Fripp’s Saturn 09 keyboard that sounds like something you’d hear at a fun fair and although that is quickly subsumed into the more raucous and abstract offerings of Entry Of The Crims, the celebratory atmosphere somehow spills over into the rest of this gig. A great-sounding audience recording captures the band performing the second of three evenings in New York, a city that has taken Crimson to its beating heart since the group’s first visit in 1969.
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September 4th, 1982 - RheinWiesen, Wiesbaden
Release date: September 23rd, 2024
In some respects, it’s possible to view this show as a KC primer, a smart guide to the unusual sonic topography of the band.
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June 30th, 2024 - Merriweather Post Pavillion, Columbia
Release date: October 21st, 2024
Although the audio quality on this audience recording is somewhat variable, sometimes sounding a little boomy and remote, it’s nevertheless a reliable snapshot of the band doing their stuff midway through a tour that would prove to be their swansong.
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March 1st, 1982 - Fine Arts Centre University of Mass, Amherst
Release date: November 4th, 2024
Eight days into King Crimson’s North American tour things are going well with the band sounding extremely confident. This tour represents a consolidation of the toe-hold in America that the group established in the fall of the previous year. At times the quartet sounds like they are playing on ‘home turf’ and benefiting from the extra boost that bands receive in such circumstances.
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The 19 shows, from the King Crimson Tour in 2014 – the first outing by The Seven-headed Beast Of Crim.
(Available as a complete tour bundle or individual dates)
Release date: December 23rd, 2024
September 9th, 2014 - The Egg, Albany
September 10th, 2014 - The Egg, Albany
September 12th, 2014 - Verizon Hall, Philadelphia
September 13th, 2014 - Verizon Hall, Philadelphia
September 15th, 2014 - Colonial Theatre, Boston
September 16th, 2014 - Colonial Theatre, Boston
September 18th, 2014 - Best Buy, New York
September 19th, 2014 - Best Buy, New York
September 20th, 2014 - Best Buy, New York
September 21st, 2014 - Best Buy, New York
September 23rd, 2014 - Barrymore Theatre, Madison
September 25th, 2014 - The Vic Theatre, Chicago
September 26th, 2014 - The Vic Theatre, Chicago
September 27th, 2014 - The Vic Theatre, Chicago
September 30th, 2014 - Orpheum Theatre, Los Angeles
October 1st, 2014 - Orpheum Theatre, Los Angeles
October 3rd, 2014 - The Warfield, San Francisco
October 4th, 2014 - The Warfield, San Francisco
October 6th, 2014 - Moore Theatre, Seattle
STORMY MONDAY SELECTION (Ocassional Series)
November, 1994 - Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream · Guitars & Bass - Real World
Release date: January 19th, 2024
With vocals and drum tracks removed, this instrumental version featuring Adrian Belew panned hard left, Trey Gunn left/centre, Tony Levin right centre, and Robert Fripp heard on the hard right of the stereo picture, offers an interesting perspective on Sex Eat Sleep Drink Dream, one of the more unusual tracks from the Double Trio era.
Unlike numbers such as VROOOM which had been worked upon by Fripp and Gunn before the main group convened, this one started life from scratch in the rehearsal room during The VROOOM Sessions ahead of Crimson’s formal return to active service.
Trey Gunn recalls the piece found its final form pretty quickly. “This was my first, and I think largely successful, attempt at finding an interjecting/sonic/baritone role with the wah and backwards sounds. So, I wasn’t playing a bass part or a solo part, but a kind of third guitar role.”
Listening to the piece in this stripped-back form nearly 30 years since it was recorded at Real World Studios during the THRAK sessions, Gunn observes, “For me, this tune was the moment of gelling into the real sextet that we could become.
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July 8th, 1974 - One More Red Nightmare - Olympic Sound Studios
Release date: February 26th, 2024
Alex 'Stormy' Mundy has once again mixed the Crimson timestreams, this time blending Crimson in Rome, 23rd July 2018 with John Wetton and Ian McDonald appearing from the Red sessions. Emulating the spirit of 1991's Frame By Frame compilation box that saw Adrian Belew appear on Cadence And Cascade and Tony Levin on Bolero, Alex comments, "Sax-wise, Mel (live) is panned right and Ian (studio) is panned left. I had to edit John slightly to fit the live version, but they certainly have played it very close to the studio tempo, and of course, the tuning is the same. The same with Ian, gently moving him to match."
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July 19th, 2002 - Facts Of Life Rehearsal - The Tracking Room
Release date: March 25th, 2024
This audio documentary showcases King Crimson at work on Facts Of Life during the making of the last studio album, The Power To Believe. It’s great hearing the guys finding their way through the take. We hear Trey querying the time signature of the ending, problems hearing the click as well as producer Machine in-cans question to Pat, and Pat pointing out the perils of speeding up followed by Adrian’s brilliant rejoinder, “Just because we shouldn’t doesn’t mean we won’t.” Also enjoyable in this fly-on-the-wall-audio is the brief discussion about where the bridge might or might not be located, putting feeling into a take, the pitfalls of ‘dinosaur tromping’ and urging from one of the guitarists to “disassociate from our subjective view of our playing.” All this as well as an alternative, previously unheard guitar solo in the middle. Priceless stuff and a wonderful insight into the Crims at work.
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May 21st, 1981 - The Sheltering Sky - Basing Street Studios
Release date: April 29th, 2024
Alex Mundy provides a fascinating tour of the insides of another piece of King Crimson repertoire. On this occasion it’s The Sheltering Sky that is stripped back. Shorn of Bruford’s African slit drum and Adrian’s vocal loops, this alternative mix focuses on the strange textures conjured by the Roland guitar synthesiser. In June 1986, Robert spoke to Guitar Player magazine’s Tom Mullen, who had asked Fripp about using what was then a new instrument and the need to develop a specific repertoire and new ways of working with the instrument. “I suppose a good example of how Adrian Belew and I used the Roland GR-300 with King Crimson is "The Sheltering Sky." Although it’s available on the Discipline album, it was infinitely better live. When we were in Japan, Roland met with Adrian and told him that we were using their guitar synthesizers in a way that they had never anticipated. I think they expected, if you like, beginner guitarists or less proficient guitarists to play fairly simple things that sounded relatively amazing. Whereas we took them really as new instruments and tried coming up with something that was quite novel.”
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August 6th, 1969 - 21st Century Schizoid Man Bass Drums And Vocals - Wessex Studios
Release date: May 27th, 2024
Famously contrarian, Michael Giles was never keen on the drum sound achieved at Wessex Studios during the making of King Crimson’s debut album in 1969, complaining that the timbre was rather papery and thin. Yet despite his misgivings, the sound of the drums, and his playing in particular, was hugely influential to established players and beginners alike but is widely regarded as the template for the burgeoning progressive music scene of the day of which Crimson was at the forefront.
Taken from the original 8-track master, Alex Mundy has stripped away everything but the drums and bass guitar, and the processed vocals as a point of orientation, on what is the first take of King Crimson’s signature song. The isolated tracks also highlight Lake’s nimble bass work reminding 21st-century listeners just how formidable the original rhythm section was when they were in full flight. Interesting also to hear Lake shouting/cueing up in the song’s scrabbling coda.
Alex notes, ”I assume they only kept Take 1 as there are no other takes. I'm pretty sure that the bass (along with the drums) are the original first take, and were used in their entirety with no drop-ins added. The improv section is quite amazing.”
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Fripp On Fripp - Frippertronics - DGM Soundworld I
Release date: June 24th, 2024
When the moody slo-mo burn of Frippertronics meets the bright and brittle guitar chords of Sunday All Over The World’s Blood Bruise Tattoo, it’s a brand new example of Applied Frippetronics courtesy of Alex ‘Stormy’ Mundy. The track, from the underrated self-titled album by Sunday All Over The World (which featured Toyah Willcox and Trey Gunn), when combined with what is a completely different musical event almost a decade later, creates new and intriguing associations and resonances, one gently and sympathetically complementing the other.
The Frippertronics were performed at a benefit concert for WXPN FM, the radio station of the University of Pennsylvania. The show (all of which is downloadable from DGMLive) was a significant event for Fripp as he related to journalist Vic Garbarini.”I was listening and I heard the next note I had to play. And I played it. Then I heard the next note, and I played that one. I'd been waiting 23 years for that to happen…and it was the first time it ever happened to me. And I started to cry while I was playing.”
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March 21st, 1982 - Sartori In Tangier Backing Track - Odyssey Recording Studios
Release date: July 29th, 2024
The 80s quartet was well known for its adoption of new musical technology such as the Simmons electronic kit, the Stick, and the Roland GR300 guitar synthesiser. One sound notably absent in this period was the Mellotron. Instead, perhaps influenced by his close proximity to Barry Andrews’ Crumar organ in The League Of Gentlemen, Fripp opted to use a small and highly mobile Roland organ he purchased in 1980.
Sartori In Tangiers, built around Tony Levin’s distinctive Stick pattern and Bruford’s assertive propulsion, is a good showcase for the keyboard. In this new stripped-back mix by Alex ‘Stormy’ Mundy, it moves from its ‘background’ status up into the foreground. Co-mingling with Frippetronics that seep into the track, the Roland organ’s delicate, shimmering translucency makes a fine contrast to the otherwise barrelling quality of the piece.
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July 9th, 1969 - I Talk To The Wind - Wessex Studios
Release date: August 26th, 2024
Ian McDonald and Peter Sinfield’s beautiful ballad had been through a few iterations before the final version that found itself sitting between the chaotic explosion of 21st Century Schizoid Man and Epitaph’s foreboding prophecies on side one of King Crimson’s 1969 debut album.
First, there had been the version with Giles, Giles, and Fripp featuring the wonderful Judy Dyble, late of Fairport Convention. Then there were early renditions at Morgan Studios with Moody Blues producer Tony Clarke sitting at the mixing desk, who would later join Crimson for a short time at Wessex Studios before the band decided to go it alone.
After some deft work on getting the pitches to match, Alex has combined two different sessions that were part of this song’s evolution. First, he’s taken the instrumental backing from the early sessions at Wessex and then combined them with the finished vocals that appeared on the debut, and in doing so has created a new rendition that’s both distinctive and beguiling.
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July 22nd, 2002 - Eyes Wide Open - The Tracking Room
Release date: September 30th, 2024
Eyes Wide Open is one of those KC ballads that moves gently enough and yet still gets under the skin. In this specially created rendition, Alex ‘Stormy’ Mundy has taken an early rehearsal run-through and aligned it with the vocal track from the finished take that appears on The Power To Believe. In doing so he’s created a spacious might-have-been alternative in which Adrian’s exquisite vocal shines through alongside a simple but effective rhythmic structure.
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January 7th, 1974 - The Night Watch Instrumental - AIR Studios
Release date: October 21st, 2024
In January 1974 King Crimson began work on the follow-up to Larks’ Tongues In Aspic at AIR Studios, a venue chosen in part because of John Wetton’s previous sessions connections with owner George Martin.
One of the three studio-only numbers they recorded during their time at AIR, Fripp is on record as saying that the solo on The Night Watch counts as a personal highlight.
Originally recorded in one take, Fripp recalls that The Night Watch’s co-composer, John Wetton’s first reaction wasn’t convinced about it. However, at Fripp’s urging, a second listen persuaded him otherwise.
For this special remix by Alex Mundy, placing the solo in the background spotlights some of the scaffolding and harmonising work that went into the song's construction.
Some of them are familiar having made it through the final mixing stages but other touches, including some ornamental sped-up electric piano flourishes toward the end, as well as a second solo guitar pass, are heard here for the first time.
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May 10th, 1983 - Dig Me - Arny's Shack
Release date: November 25th, 2024
When played live during King Crimson’s 1984 tour Belew would often refer to this track, Industry and No Warning from Three Of A Perfect Pair album as ‘the weird stuff’ and it's easy to understand why. Dig Me boldly questions just what a ‘song’ might consist of, combining as it did verses and choruses that were radically different from each other both in tone and texture.
Yet somehow Crimson managed to weld the two elements together in what sounds like a headfirst collision between dark, experimental abstractions and sleek freewheeling pop music sensibilities. In this special remix, Alex Mundy has removed Belew’s vocals for the verse section and the chorus section entirely, allowing the listener to go under the hood to hear the dense components that include Belew’s whammy-laden fretless guitar, Bruford’s accelerating electronic drums, and Levin’s popping work on the Stick.
Belew once recalled that the song’s origins lay in the attempts to come up with a different style of song to what was on the rest of the album. “I told the guys I wanted to lay down this very awkward guitar part and then have them play to it, but in a way that would sound like we’re really not playing together as often as we are. The song sounds like it’s falling apart.”
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December 2nd, 1980 - Trap - Arny's Shack
Release date: December 30th, 2024
Taken from the recording sessions for The League Of Gentlemen’s 1981 sole album, this version of the live footstomper Trap is stripped of its drums to reveal the nimble finger work of Fripp, Lee, and Andrews. Beautifully interlocking, like a well-oiled mechanism, while Fripp sometimes described the League as “a second wave dance band with the emphasis on spirit rather than competence,” as can be clearly heard on this outing the band was clearly capable of delivering both.
