In an interview in August 1979 with Jim Sullivan for Sweet Potato, Fripp states, "Ambience is a very important movement and I am prepared to support it myself with my own ambient albums. I think it is a very interesting approach. Frippertronics falls into two sections. Applied Frippertronics is a question of where it's used to replace the orchestra; the examples are all over Exposure and Sacred Song. Frippertronics music of eating at restaurants is the other where it would be music to be listened to as one would listen to a string quartet. Frippertronics can be demanding in which case it isn't, by definition, ambient. Some of it is ambient. Once in Paris, I went to this restaurant for supper and asked the manager if he would let me play there and he said yes. So I went back the next two nights and played for supper and because people were eating, I accepted the responsibility of not interfering with their digestion; it was definitely ambient music. It actually put one of the record company people to sleep and he was rather embarrassed to say to me, 'I went to sleep' but in fact, I considered it the ultimate praise.”
12/08/2024