The beauty of a concert by the Robert Fripp String Quintet is the variety of material covered.[endtease] 60s surf tunes, Bach, Bop themes, eerie electronics as well as exquisite acoustic confections are all part of the feast. Since the mid-80s Fripp had been working sporadically with the League of Crafty Guitarists whose line-up included future Crimson member, Trey Gunn and all three members of the California Guitar Trio Paul Richards, Bert Lams and Hideyo Moriya.
The string quintet began working live just a few months before Fripp conceived the notion of a Double Trio version of King Crimson in 1992, Continuing to play much of the Crafty repertoire (owners of the CGT’s first two albums and the LoCG’s Intergalactic Boogie Express will be familiar with several of the tracks here), this slimmed-down line-up afforded a sharper focus to many of the pieces with the added contrast of Fripp and Gunn’s soundscaping.
Bert Lams' sublime Asturias is as spellbinding as ever, and Trey Gunn's flourishes on Chromatic Fantasy have a spiky, jarring edge to them, so much so that many people are convinced it's Fripp who is playing the piece. The first of the two Soundscapes include motifs later developed when Fripp and Gunn resumed playing with David Sylvian later in the year.
The only official document of the Robert Fripp String Quintet, The Bridge Between (1993) failed to convey the breadth of the material the group covered during a full set. Happily, this download rectifies that omission.
