King Crimson - THRAK (Live At The Warfield Theatre, 1995) скачать в хорошем качестве

King Crimson - THRAK (Live At The Warfield Theatre, 1995)

Visit Bill’s online store for exclusive and signed items: https://www.shorturl.at/adnpq You and I? We should sit down in a pub together with a glass of our favourite, and I’ll tell you about this performance of Thrak. It’s a powerful instrumental thing from six people on stage. There’s a lot going on, so I’ll try and explain some of it. This is largely improvised music, begun and ended with a 40” written theme. There are two meters running: 5/8 (5/4) and 7/8 (7/4). They are stated clearly at the beginning (head) from 0’09” to 0’49”, with single hits from Pat Mastelotto in his 5 meter, and myself in my 7 meter. After that we’re off the prepared material, and we’re propelled into space to see what happens. From this emerges the ghost of pianist Keith Tippett, conjured up at 1’24” courtesy of Adrian’s MIDI-enabled guitar. Keith was a King Crimson visitor in the early 1970s, rather than a full time member, with the same volcanic power to change things as, say, Jamie Muir. Hear for example his playing on the group’s ‘Cat Food’. The repeated and rapid running figure that the ‘pianist’ introduces at 1’55" provokes Robert Fripp into getting up a ferocious head of steam on my right. What he’s playing is informed by the scales and tone-rows that he’s used in the thematic material at the beginning. I’m surplus to requirements for most of that piano passage, so happy to hang out (1’55” to 2’30”) and listen. Around 2'30", the music naturally begins to lose it’s aggression, its density, and lies down on the grass exhausted. We’re approaching the middle part of all this mayhem; the eye of the hurricane, if you like. Some growls from Tony Levin’s arco bass (2’41”- 2’44”), like a sleeping giant having a scratch, precede some beautiful ‘small’ figures from Adrian. The appearance of an electric drill, applied with care around Adrian’s guitar pickups, signals that the other side of the hurricane is approaching rapidly. The group’s sound again becomes more dense, the activity increases, until a moment of near-silence around two small repeated xylophone figures (4’03”- 4’08”). No idea who played them - too dark to see. Probably me. This version of Thrak is developing a nice shape, or form. Tony on bass has been waiting patiently since 3’52” looking back at Robert for a cue into a repeat of the head which we all know is coming…we just don’t know when. Having decided the performance has said everything it came to say, Robert shouts ‘Three, Four!’ after the xylophone (4’09”) and we’re back in on the prepared music. Another reading of Thrak – on perhaps another night or with other personnel - might not have abandoned the polymetric (two or more metres at once) thing so immediately, so precipitously, at the end of the written music (0’49”). It might alternatively have split the group in half: one half playing within the constraints of the 5 metre and the other within the 7 meter. But a prior agreement to do that, or any other pre-arrangement as to what should happen after 0’49”, would have violated the whole idea of six people inventing simultaneously. Any imposition on free improv (which in itself is subject to all kinds of constraints) constitutes composition. Why improvise? In collective performance, new, unpredicted, and indeed unpredictable things happen. Creativity involves constant organizing, dis-organizing, and re-organizing. It involves actively breaking down assumptions, givens, traditions, pushing boundaries and moving out of comfort zones. That's the sort of thing King Crimson was built for. Good improv requires both control and spontaneity, constraints and possibilities, innovation and tradition. You learn a lot about yourself and your colleagues doing this stuff. Any improviser will tell you that the more people on stage, the harder it is to create something of value. One measure of value might be: would anyone want to listen to the piece more than once? Take two people though – one on a pitched instrument and one on unpitched – and you have every chance of producing something with shape and coherence; which is why my two improvising bands were with either Michiel Borstlap or Patrick Moraz. I don’t recall ever discussing the specifics or generalities of collective, unprepared music-making in King Crimson. So, this night, we did it this way. Another night, another way. All fine by me. #billbruford #jazzdrummer #improvisation #electronicdrumkit #kingcrimson #paistecymbals #drummer #earthworks #tamadrums #drumsolos #billbrufordsearthworks