What is it about this music and this sound that resonates with listeners? Composer Andrew Keeling tells us in his Concise Musical Guide To King Crimson that “Starless marks the grand recorded play-out from the band with its G minor modal centre, its Phyrgian Eb major to D minor cadences and Wetton’s plaintive vocal melody underscored by a Neapolitan chord progression (G minor - Ab major - G minor).”
But that doesn’t quite tell us about the pain, joy, regret, and hope that went into the process of arriving at these notes and which seems to slowly radiate from within this sequence.
This Alex Mundy mix places the two mellotrons played by Robert during the Red recording sessions in 1974 hard left and hard right for Bill Rieflin to learn the parts for King Crimson’s return to active service in 2014.