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Dig if u will my research paper Chapter 6



Chapter 6 
The Music of Brain Eno and Robert Fripp
The Brian Eno and Robert Fripp partnership
Brief History
Brain Eno became interested in repetition from exposure to the music of the
Minimalists. The first piece he ever performed in public was La Monte
Youngıs 1960 piece X For Henry Flynt. The piece gives the following
instructions to the performer ³a heavy sound (such as a cluster) is to be
repeated as uniformly, as regularly, and as loudly as possible a relatively
large number of times² . From this performance Eno noticed how the subtle
variations of timing and timbre between each recurrence became more obvious
with time, leading him to conclude, ³Repetition is a form of change² . In a
1985 interview Eno singled out another Minimalists work Steve Reichıs Its
Gonna Rain as ³probably the most important piece that I ever heard, in that
it gave me an idea Iıve never ceased to be fascinated with ­ how variety 
can
be generated by very simple systems²  The influence of Minimalists like
Riley, Reich and La Monte Young would cause Eno alongside Robert Fripp to
bring Live-Looping to the masses.
Music
In the autumn of1972 Brain Eno and Robert Fripp got together to produce the
album No Pussyfooting Around (1973). The record was made by the combination
of Brain Enoıs manipulation of two Revox tape recorders in an identical
formation to Terry Rileyıs ŒTime-Lag Accumulatorı using Robert Frippıs
guitar as the input. The record contains two long pieces of music, The
Heavenly Music Corporation and Swastika Girls both reliant on the tape 
delay
system Terry Riley had invented. Although the record was clearly based
around Terry Rileyıs ŒTime-Lag Accumulatorı system Robert Fripp decided to
rename this equipment system Frippertronics. In Frippıs words
³Frippertronics is defined as that musical experience which results at the
(intersection) of Robert Fripp and a small and appropriate level of
technology which is my Les Paul, the Fripp pedal board of fuzz, wah-wah and
volume pedals and two Revox's.²  Fripp goes on to describe the aesthetic
effect of Frippertronics saying, ³there are two categories of
Frippertronics, pure and applied. Applied is where itıs used as an
alternative to traditional orchestration, instrumentation, arrangement and
so on and pure Frippertronics is where Frippertronics stands up as music in
its own right.²  
Influence of Riley
The structure of the piece The Heavenly Music Corporation strongly alludes
to the work of Terry Riley. The use of a drone, its modal form, the
rhapsodic solos, and subtle modulation cadence could easily read as a
description for Terry Rileyıs piece Poppy No-good And The Phantom Band
recorded some 5 years before in 1968.
The most significant result of Eno and Frippıs recording No Pussyfooting
Around was through their high profile status within the rock music world
that they were able to increase the mainstream music buying publicıs
exposure to Live-Looping.  They went on to repeat the collaboration with 
the
1975 recording Evening Star. This was their last album together however 
both
Eno and Fripp continued to use tape delay in their own music. Robert Fripp
forming the rest of his musical output around it.
Robert Fripp
Fripp has continued to remain at the forefront of Live-Looping ever since
his initial experiments with Brian Eno. In 1978 Fripp went on to use the
ŒFrippertronicsı system on his solo album Exposure. Although this effect 
can
be heard throughout the album it is perhaps most prominent on ŒWater musicı
and ŒWater music 2ı where Fripp creates thick almost synthesizer layers of
distorted guitar to beautiful effect. ³Fripp continued using the tape
delay/feedback system in his work with Peter Gabriel (1976) and Daryl Hall
(1977).²  The Frippertronics system is still used by Fripp even today
although now he has replaced the Revox tape recorders with digital delay
units (TC2290s) and renamed it Soundscaping. With Soundscaping Fripp has
increased the complexity of his looping by using four TC2290s i.e. four
channels of looping each of which could be set to cycle over a different
time period.  
Fripps contribution to the Live-Looping movement was significant because 
his
fame and his concert appearances increased the publicıs awareness of the 
use
of tape delay as a performance and compositional device. I donıt believe
that Frippertronics and the compositional use of it can be said to be
significantly different from that of Terry Riley and his ŒTime-Lag
Accumulatorı. However, Frippıs music was of great importance because of his
popularity and just as crucially because he was an electric guitarist. The
electric guitar could probably be seen as highest profile western 
instrument
of the time and therefore the appeal of someone doing something genuinely
new with it was massive. It can be argued that it was Frippıs use of
Live-Looping that has now made the guitar the most commonly associated
instrument with Live-Looping.
Brian Eno
The Heavenly Music Corporation as a system, anticipates Enoıs own ambient
style. First of all, the piece is a system, or process: it represents a way
of making music, a concept of music-making, as much as it represents a
composition in the traditional sense.
Eno and Frippıs piece The Heavenly Music Corporation was in many ways a
forerunner to the direction that Eno would use in his later in works. The
piece is based around a process of musical creation (tape delay) that Eno
would go on to systemise further in what became known as his first Ambient
recording Discrete Music (1975). This record was produced by two stored
synthesiser lines played into the same tape delay system as used on No
Pussyfooting Around. Famously the album was produced almost without intent.
Eno desired to produce some background music for himself and Robert Fripp
and once set in motion the music was produced with almost no intervention
whilst Fripp and Eno had tea.
Discrete Music saw Eno using the ideas of the Minimalists in new ways. 
Using
a combination of Rileyıs ŒTime-Lag-Accumulatorı and Reichıs idea of phasing
Eno created a continuously evolving soundscape. Although the piece is not
Live-Looping in the traditional sense, the fact that it is created live
(once started), means it should be included here. After Discrete Music 
Enoıs
solo work continued to follow the Steve Reich inspired ideas of systems of
music generation using closed tape loops on his Ambient work series.
Significance 
Enoıs significance as a composer and producer of music has been huge. He 
has
been responsible for relocating the lessons and ideas of Minimalist
composers into a rock and mainstream audience. Through his album Discreet
Music Eno can be said to have created a whole new genre of music 
composition
called Ambient music. Although Discreet Music uses the same tape delay
system as Frippertronics and the ŒTime-lag Accumulatorı the results are 
once
again very different. In this case Eno used Live-Looping to make soothing
music that redefined the idea of foreground and background. This was Enoıs
version of the idea of automatic music, a successful realisation of the
ideas of musical process that Steve Reich had produced with his early
phasing pieces. Eno would continue to explore the idea of musical systems 
in
his Ambient series of records. Eno famously said that Ambient music ³must 
be
as ignorable as it is interesting²  This mindset has a very Cagean ring to
it in that once again Eno was fascinated with the idea of surface in music
an idea that Cage had explored before him. Eno, inspired by Cage, also used
chance in the creation of his music creating his own Oblique Strategies
oracle cards mirroring Cageıs use of the Chinese book called the I Ching.