Name: Washington Square Church
Brand: Robert Fripp

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

DGMLPX103

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Colour

Black

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Double 200 Gram Vinyl.

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Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2022-05-06

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Lasgo

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

0633367606112

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Total Cap

2 / Extended format: No / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No / black

DGMSP103

{"blocks": [{"data": {"text": "DGMSP103"}, "type": "paragraph"}]}

CD and DVD Set

{"blocks": [{"data": {"text": "CD and DVD Set"}, "type": "paragraph"}]}

0633367793928

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2 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Robert Fripp

Genre GB

Prog Rock

Label GB

Panegyric

Panegyric is a renowned music label that originated as a UK distributor for various artists. Over time, it evolved into an independent brand, focusing primarily on musicians associated with the iconic band King Crimson.

With LC 00614 as its unique identifier, Panegyric has established itself as a trusted platform for fans of progressive rock and related genres. The label offers a diverse range of music from talented artists who have been influenced by or collaborated with members of King Crimson.

As a leading e-commerce website in the music industry, Panegyric provides an extensive collection of albums, merchandise, and exclusive releases. With its informative and authoritative tone, the label ensures that fans can easily discover and enjoy the extraordinary talent within their carefully curated catalog.

Robert Fripp is a British guitarist, keyboards player, writer and producer. He is best known as a founder and only continuous member of King Crimson, from their debut album "In The Court Of The Crimson King" in 1969, through to the most recent studio album "The Power to Believe" in 2003. With over 50 years as a professional musician and 60 years as a guitarist, Fripp has made significant contributions to the music industry.

Fripp is also recognized for his development of Frippertronics and Soundscapes, innovative methods that involve creating unique sounds with just one guitar using tape/digital delay, rack-mount synthesizer units, and other effects. He co-owns and operates the record label DGM (Discipline Global Mobile) which specializes in releasing King Crimson material and side projects from various KC members.

In addition to his musical endeavors, Fripp founded Guitar Craft seminars in the mid-1980s. These seminars later evolved into Guitar Circles across North America, South America, and Europe. He continues to direct Guitar Circles along with the Symphony of Crafty Guitarists. Recently, his first widely published book "The Guitar Circle" was released by Panegyric Publishing in association with DGM.

Live Frippertronics performances taken from recordings in New York City between July and August 1981. Mixed and Produced by David Singleton from audio restored by Alex R. Mundy. 

After completing the first round of concerts with a revived King Crimson starting in May 1981, Fripp headed over to the USA where he began a week-long residency at Washington Square United Methodist Church on 135 W Fourth Street in New York. Built in 1860, the church had historically been home to many congregations but in more recent years had become the venue for groups such as the Black Panthers, Gay Men’s Health Crisis and numerous arts organisations.

The series of Frippertronics concerts were held in aid of a Soho-based theatre group and they find the guitarist using his technique of slowly building the music from the ground up, step by step. It’s an approach which demonstrates how the addition or subtraction of a single note can change the entire mood of a piece as we move in the space of a few bars from an atmosphere of pensive anticipation to one of yearning hope. In an interview with the Melody Maker published just weeks before these concerts, Fripp was asked why he continued to perform Frippertronics concerts. “It gives me a way of working with intimate contact with members of an audience...It's almost an excuse to put me in a situation where one has the audience, performer and music, and in a certain kind of way something remarkable can happen. And that has happened to me, and it's not possible in a group...Frippertronics is the most enjoyable means of playing I've ever found.”

The Washington Square Church performances represent some of the finest recorded examples of the Frippertronics series. Unlike other such recordings where the loops are on tape in the DGM archive but the solos require painstaking matching of existing audience recordings and bootlegs to those loops to complete the picture, the solos for these shows were actually recorded but not labelled as to which solos matched which loops. The matched pairs only became possible when DGM audio engineer Alex R. Mundy realised that the loops had been picked up, at microscopic audio levels, by the guitar pick-ups playing the solos, allowing for identification. David Singleton was then able to mix and produce the resulting audio.

The music played more than rewards such efforts as, culled from the shows, (more complete versions appear on the “Exposures” boxed set), Fripp appears to explore every sonic avenue available to him as a guitar player – mesmerising loops, overlaid with beautiful solos, fast running ‘Frame by Frame’ style lines against a looped background, powerful ‘Scary Monsters’ type guitar noises and more besides.

This is the Frippertronics album that should have come out in 1982. The forty years that have passed have done nothing to diminish the power of the music.