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From: Rainer Thelonius Balthasar Straschill [mailto:rs@moinlabs.de] Sent: Saturday, November 27, 2004 2:26 AM To: info@krispenhartung.com Subject: AW: Robert Fripp's Radiophonics and A Blessing of Tears ******** Krispen, you said: However, with all due respect to the man and guitarist, I'm not at all impressed with these particular works. I find them dull and uninspiring. I even read through his academic discourse in the CD insert.still, no greater appreciation of what he is doing. I'm sure the CD would make an outstanding soundtrack for a sci-fi or art film, but as standalone works, I think they totally misrepresent Fripp's caliber as a musician and composer. perhaps it's just the other way round - the King Crimson material misrepresents Fripp's caliber as a musician and composer? Rainer ********* Could be! I guess I'm being too hard on Fripp's CDs here. I often fall victim of measuring my taste in music by 1) how innovative or unique the harmonic/melodic structure is (relative to what has been done prior) and 2) the technical ability involved. It is a bias, I admit, and often an impediment. My first impression with a lot of this textured music is that...hmmm.... I think thousands of guitarists, including myself, could probably sit down with the same gear and play something similar....and most likely thousands of guitarist who don't have a fraction of the raw talent and ability as Fripp. So, taken "in its self" what is so special about this one? The technical aspect is not that taxing, and neither is the innovativeness in my mind. I suppose if he had done all those with a raw guitar sound rather than thousands of dollars of processing, I might have jumped out of my seat with intrigue. Hence, the effort seems standard. Back to the painter analogy, it is like any painter sitting down and painting a very commonplace abstract landscape...some backdrop and wash...a few colorful streaks here, some metallic speckles there....ta da...pure art! But does the painting have some unique personality? Scrutinized relative to other works, is it offering something new and annotative? If some unknown artist paints this landscape...it gets thrown in the basement...if some artist genius with a huge name paints it, all of a sudden it is pure genius. Yet, I sometimes contradict myself if my above comments are taken as a generalism. Because there some soundscape that I really enjoy to help me relax or focus. For instance, I'm not sure if any of you have heard Michael Peter's stretched landspaces, but I have a copy of that CD and absolutely love to work to it. It puts me in a very peaceful state of mind. I liked it so much, I created a music video DVD of it and his computer art work. I wasn't compelled to do this with Fripp's soundscapes, so I guess MUCH personal preference, intersubjectivity, and individual nuances are at play here. I like Chai tea...my wife likes Earl Gray. Krispen Hartung http://www.krispenhartung.com info@krispenhartung.com