Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Vista Frippery


It's funny I was talking about Fripp. Discovered this link about RF doing the music for Microsoft's new Vista.


Talk about Bobby's propensity for the dark though. You can hardly see anything! But, I have mixed feelings about this stuff. Soundscapes can be quite snoozy and not as effective as the whole Eno approach to ambient. I thought maybe Eno and Fripp's last reunion, Equatorial Stars, would have brought these two ideas together in a new way, but I was disappointed.
Maybe, in the end, it's all about the cowbell.


2 comments:

wthii said...

I'm watching the vid right now, and I must say that what Fripp is playing is as musically compelling as any solo frippertronics bit I've heard in 25 years. The magnificent "Let the Power Fall" to my ears sounds far more purposeful and much less noodly than anything he's done in this vein since replacing the analog tape recorders with the digital means of repetition. Perhaps the limitations of the technology focused him a bit more: "what ought I to do" vs. "what can I do". I don't know. But at least this sounds like a guitar rather than dull synth washes.

Anonymous said...

it doesn't have compositionl focus, but meanders, albeit in a pleasant way, but you get the feeling that just about any decent musician could create these textures.

sometimes, his whole synthy guitar thing works, like in a context of a song. Damage by David Sylvian gets some excellent lines contributed by Fripp.

you could be right about the early technology. the more limited a composer is, he's forced to make harder choices and ...better ones.