Robert Fripp String Quintet - 1992-11-16 Nagoya, JP (2012)

There’s some beautiful examples of interplay between Trey Gunn and Robert Fripp on the soundscape that opens this last of four Japanese concerts for the RFSQ. While the rapid availability of cheap looping technology spawned a proliferation of soundscaping, it’s rare for such ambient outings to be as tightly focused as those presented here. The second soundscape of the evening smoulders ominously at the beginning before catching fire with bursts of white-hot guitar from Fripp and once again Gunn’s swooping runs make for some intense listening.

The California Guitar Trio’s interventions, subtly shaded sometimes by Fripp and Gunn together and separately, offer a fresh, bracing alternative to the often ominous atmospheres generated by the electric end of the String Quintet. Their fleet-fingered playing shines on smart-paced material such as Kan-Non Power and the dense complexities of Bycycling To Afghanistan where the quintet becomes something akin to single interlocking organism.

Buyer be warned: there’s some digital clipping during Eye Of The Needle which though noticeable is thankfully brief.