Year: 2007
Record Label: DGM
Style: Electronica
Review: These two music icons have enjoyed a fruitful relationship spanning back to their 1973 collaboration No Pussyfooting and onward. Here, guitarist Robert Fripp and ambient-electronic hero Brian Eno present a cache of largely unreleased works spanning 14 years of intermittent studio-based endeavors. This is a limited edition twofer, featuring works highlighted in segued form (CD 1) and then individually (CD 2). But since it’s a limited edition, when the cup runneth over, the record label states that the subsequent issuance will be downsized to one disc. Regardless, these concise pieces signify a multicolored portraiture of the duo’s methodology.
With Fripp’s sustain-drenched guitar licks and Eno’s multi-tiered textures, the music conveys a framework consisting of ominously designed dreamscapes, phased-out loops and expansive backdrops. At times, the musicians execute echo-chamber like effects, dainty voicings and lullaby style motifs, where lamenting themes are often conjured up within the splendors of simplicity. And on various works, they summon notions of traveling through a black hole star and cavernous vistas. On “The Idea of Decline,” they render a pumping rock pulse topped off with midi-vibes and Fripp’s scalding guitar lines.
Eno generates a point of reference via his heartbeat synth pattern amid the supple escapades heard on “Voices,” yet Fripp goes for the proverbial jugular during the sizzling “Cross Crisis In Lust Storm.” To that end, this album should be deemed essential for the performers’ legion of admirers. It’s a divergent program that showcases the musicians irrefutably, fertile imaginations evidenced throughout a variegated set of compositional parameters. (Zealously recommended…)
Record Label Website: http://www.dgmlive.com
Artist's Website: http://www.enoshop.co.uk
Listen or Buy: Amazon
Reviewed by:
Glenn Astarita
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