King Crimson

King Crimson are a progressive rock band. Formed in London in 1968 (but featuring a transatlantic line-up since 1981), the band are widely recognised as a foundational progressive rock group (although the group members resist the label).^[5] The band have incorporated diverse influences and approaches during their five-decade history (including jazz and folk music, classical and experimental music, psychedelic rock, hard rock and heavy metal,^[6] new wave, gamelan, electronica and drum and bass) as well as balancing highly structured compositions against abstract improvisational sections and an interest in pop songs. The band has a large following, despite garnering little radio or music video airplay.^[7]

With guitarist Robert Fripp as the only consistent member (and therefore considered to be the band's leader and motive force), King Crimson's line-up has persistently altered throughout its existence. Eighteen musicians and three lyricists have passed through the ranks, although the tenure of certain members has sometimes extended for decades. King Crimson's sound has varied according to its instrumentation - earlier line-ups featured prominent saxophone and keyboards, while subsequent line-ups replaced this with (variously) violin, innovative acoustic or electronic percussion, interlocking guitars or touch-style instruments. The band are notable for continuous engagement with contemporary music technology - in addition to Fripp's extensive work in loop music both in and out of the band, King Crimson pioneered the use of Mellotrons in the 1960s; Roland guitar synthesizers, Simmons electronic drums and the Chapman Stick in the 1980s; dense MIDI processing and the Warr Guitar in the 1990s, and Roland V-Drums in the 21st century. King Crimson's existence has been characterised by regular periods of hiatus (each of which have been initiated and concluded by Fripp). From 1997 until the present day, various subdivisions of King Crimson have continued to pursue aspects of the band's work and approaches via a series of related bands collectively referred to as "ProjeKCts".

The debut line-up of King Crimson was influential but short-lived: lasting for just under one year, it established several of the ground rules of British progressive rock (a high standard of instrumental expertise, active technological engagement, complex multi-part compositions and the fusion of then-current psychedelic rock forms with classical, jazz and folk idioms). During 1970 and 1971 a second and unstable line-up struggled to unite disjunctions between increasingly formalised studio work and rougher live incarnations, going through numerous personnel changes while further exploring elements of jazz, funk and chamber music. Establishing a third, stable line-up in 1972, King Crimson developed a European-influenced improvisational sound with elements of hard rock, jazz fusion and a distinctly harsher classical component (mainly inspired by Béla Bartók) before breaking up in 1974. A fourth line-up of King Crimson was active between 1981 and 1984 - an Anglo/American quartet with new wave pop and gamelan influences. A fifth line-up (the '80s quartet expanded to a six-piece) appeared in 1994, blending aspects of the band's 1980s and 1970s sound with fresh influences from genres such as industrial rock, grunge and loop music. Further line-ups of King Crimson have continued to work up until the present day, with the band continuing to incorporate new elements (such as drum and bass) into their music. The current line-up is a seven-piece band (Fripp, Jakko Jakszyk, Tony Levin, Mel Collins, Pat Mastelotto, Gavin Harrison and Bill Rieflin) with three drummers, a saxophonist/flautist, paired guitars, bass and assorted electronic devices. Due to the number of musicians involved in King Crimson over the years (plus the band's emphasis on creativity and on recruiting high-level players) the band is at the hub of a network of other bands and projects, and has been influential to many contemporary musical artists.

History

Origins

In August 1967, brothers Michael Giles (drums) and Peter Giles (bass) who had been professional musicians in various jobbing bands since their mid-teens in Dorset, advertised for a singing organist to join their new project.^[10] Fellow Dorset musician Robert Fripp – a guitarist who did not sing – responded and the trio formed the band Giles, Giles and Fripp. Based on a format of eccentric pop songs and complex instrumentals, the band recorded several unsuccessful singles and one album, The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp.^[7] The band hovered on the edge of success, with several radio sessions and a television appearance, but never scored the hit that would have been crucial for a commercial breakthrough. The album was no more of a success than the singles, and was even disparaged by Keith Moon of The Who in a magazine review.^[7]

Attempting to expand their sound, Giles, Giles and Fripp then recruited the multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald on keyboards, reeds and woodwinds. McDonald brought along his then-girlfriend, the former Fairport Convention singer Judy Dyble, whose tenure with the group was brief and ended at the same time as her romantic split with McDonald (she would later resurface in Trader Horne).^[7][11] More significantly, McDonald brought in lyricist, roadie and art strategist Peter Sinfield, with whom he had been writing songs – a partnership initiated when McDonald had said to Sinfield, regarding his 1968 band Creation, "Peter, I have to tell you that your band is hopeless, but you write some great words. Would you like to get together on a couple of songs?"^[12] One of the first songs McDonald and Sinfield wrote together was "The Court of the Crimson King".

Fripp, meanwhile, had seen the band 1-2-3 (later known as Clouds) at the Marquee. This band would later inspire some of Crimson's penchant for classical melodies and jazz-like improvisation.^[13] Feeling that he no longer wished to pursue Peter Giles' more whimsical pop style, Fripp recommended his friend Greg Lake, a singer and guitarist, for recruitment into the band, with the suggestion that Lake should replace either him or Peter Giles.^[11] Although Peter Giles would later sardonically describe this as one of Fripp's "cute political moves",^[11] he himself had become disillusioned with Giles, Giles and Fripp's failure to break through, and stepped down to be replaced by Lake as the band's bass player, singer and frontman. At this point, the band morphed into what would become King Crimson.^[7]

Line-up 1 (1968–1969)

The first incarnation of King Crimson was formed in London on 30 November 1968 and first rehearsed on 13 January 1969.^[7][14] The band name was coined by lyricist Peter Sinfield, though it is not meant to be a synonym for Beelzebub, prince of demons.^[15] According to Fripp, Beelzebub would be an anglicised form of the Arabic phrase "B'il Sabab", meaning "the man with an aim".^[16] Historically and etymologically, a "crimson king" was any monarch during whose reign there was civil unrest and copious bloodshed; the album debuted at the height of world-wide opposition to the military involvement of the United States in Southeast Asia. At this point, Ian McDonald was King Crimson's main composer, albeit with significant contributions from Lake and Fripp, while Sinfield not only wrote all the lyrics but designed and operated the band's revolutionary stage lighting, and was therefore credited with "sounds and visions". McDonald suggested the new band purchase a Mellotron (the first example of the band's persistent involvement with music technology) and they began using it to create an orchestral rock sound, inspired by The Moody Blues.^[17]

Peter Sinfield, interviewed for Prog Rock Britannia: An Observation in Three Movements, described Crimson thus: "[W]e had an Ethos in Crimson... we just refused to play anything that sounded anything like a Tin Pan Alley record. If it sounded at all popular, it was out. So it had to be complicated, it had to be more expansive chords, it had to have strange influences. If it sounded, like, too simple, we'd make it more complicated, we'd play it in 7/8 or 5/8, just to show off".^[8]

	"The Court of the Crimson King" (1969) 37 second sample from King Crimson's "The Court of the Crimson King", demonstrating the sound of the first incarnation of the band, with its classically influenced style and use of the Mellotron instrument.
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King Crimson made their live debut on 9 April 1969,^[14] and made a breakthrough by playing the Rolling Stones free concert at Hyde Park, London in July 1969 before an estimated 500,000 people.^[7]

In the Court of the Crimson King

The band's debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King, was released in October 1969 on Island Records. Fripp would later describe it as having been "an instant smash" and "New York's acid album of 1970" (notwithstanding Fripp and Giles' claim that the band never used psychedelic drugs).^[14] The album received public compliments from Pete Townshend, The Who's guitarist, who called the album "an uncanny masterpiece."^[18] The sound of In the Court of the Crimson King (specifically the track, "21st Century Schizoid Man") has also been described as setting the antecedent for alternative rock and grunge, whilst the softer tracks are described as having an "ethereal" and "almost sacred" feel.^[19] In contrast to the blues-based hard rock of the contemporary British and American scenes, King Crimson presented a more Europeanised approach that blended antiquity and modernity. The band's music drew on a wide range of influences provided by all five group members. These elements included romantic- and modernist-era classical music, the psychedelic rock spearheaded by Jimi Hendrix, folk, jazz, military music (partially inspired by McDonald's stint as an army musician), ambient improvisation, Victoriana and British pop.

After playing shows in England, the band embarked on a tour of the United States, performing alongside many contemporary popular musicians and musical groups. Their first US show was performed at Goddard College, in Plainfield, Vermont. While their original sound astounded contemporary audiences and critics,^[7] creative tensions were already developing within the band. Michael Giles and Ian McDonald, still striving to cope with King Crimson's rapid success and the realities of life on the road, became uneasy with the band's direction. Although he was neither the dominant composer in the band nor the frontman, Fripp was very much the band's driving force and spokesman, leading King Crimson into progressively darker and more intense musical areas. McDonald and Giles, now favouring a lighter and more romantic style of music, became increasingly uncomfortable with their position and resigned from the band during the California tour. To salvage what he saw as the most important elements of King Crimson, Fripp offered to resign himself, but McDonald and Giles declared that the band was "more (him) than them" and that they should therefore be the ones to leave.^[11]

The original line-up played their last show together in San Francisco at the Fillmore West on 16 December 1969.^[14] Ian McDonald and Michael Giles then formally left King Crimson to pursue solo work, recording the semi-successful McDonald and Giles studio album in 1970 before dissolving their partnership (McDonald would later resurface as one of the founding members of Foreigner while Giles became a session drummer). Live recordings of the original King Crimson's concerts were eventually released twenty-seven years later in 1996 as the double/quadruple live album Epitaph and in the King Crimson Collector's Club releases.

From the start of 1970 until mid-1971, King Crimson remained in a state of flux with fluctuating line-ups and break-ups, thwarted tour plans and difficulties in finding a satisfactory musical direction. (This period has subsequently been referred to as the "interregnum" – a nickname implying that the "King" (King Crimson) was not properly in place during this time.^[11]) Greg Lake was the next member to leave, departing in early 1970 after being approached by Keith Emerson to join what would become Emerson, Lake & Palmer. This left Fripp as the only remaining musician in the band, taking on part of the keyboard-playing role in addition to guitar. To compensate, Sinfield increased his own creative role and began developing his interest in synthesisers for use on subsequent records.

In the Wake of Poseidon

The band's second album, In the Wake of Poseidon was recorded by a mixture of the remaining members (Fripp and Sinfield) and their former associates. Michael Giles returned to play drums on a session only basis, joined by his brother Peter Giles on bass. The entire album is based, movement for movement, on the seven-movement orchestral suite "The Planets" by the English composer Gustav Holst. At one point, the band considered hiring the then-unknown Elton John (on spec) to be the album's singer, but decided against it.^[20] Instead (and in exchange for receiving King Crimson's PA equipment as payment),^[11] Lake agreed to sing on the album, covering all of the vocal tracks except "Cadence And Cascade", which was sung by Fripp's old schoolfriend and teenage bandmate Gordon Haskell. Mel Collins (formerly of the band Circus) contributed saxophones and flute. Another key performer was jazz pianist Keith Tippett, who became an integral part of King Crimson's sound for the next few records. Although Fripp offered him full band membership, Tippett preferred to remain as a studio collaborator and performed live with the band only once.^[11] In the Wake of Poseidon was moderately well received on release, but was criticised as sounding very similar in both style and content to the band's debut album, to the point where it seemed like an imitation.^[7] But listening to the early live recordings of the band on Epitaph, it soon becomes apparent how much of Poseidon was already part of the live set. The first and second albums put together represented the touring repertoire of the original band.

Lizard

With In the Wake of Poseidon on sale, Fripp and Sinfield had material and releases to promote, but no band to play them. In considerable desperation, Fripp persuaded Gordon Haskell to join permanently as singer and bass player and also recruited former Shy Limbs/Manfred Mann drummer Andy McCulloch (another Dorset musician moving in the West London progressive rock circle). Mel Collins was also retained as a full band member.^[11] Both Haskell and McCulloch joined King Crimson in time to participate in the recording sessions for the band's third album, Lizard,^[7] but had no say in the writing of the material. Fripp and Sinfield, now effectively equal artistic partners, had written the entire album themselves and had also brought in a squad of jazz musicians to help record it – Keith Tippett, cornet player Mark Charig, trombonist Nick Evans and oboe player Robin Miller. Jon Anderson of Yes was also brought in to perform vocals on one song ("Prince Rupert Awakes")^[7] which Fripp and Sinfield considered to be outside Haskell's range and style.^[11] Lizard featured much stronger avant-garde jazz and chamber-classical influences than previous albums, as well as Sinfield's upfront experiments with processing and distorting sound through the VCS3 synthesiser. It also featured Sinfield's most complex set of allusive lyrics to date, including a coded song about the break-up of the Beatles, with almost the entire second side taken up by a predominantly instrumental chamber suite describing a medieval battle and its outcome.

Lizard has subsequently been described as being an "acquired taste":^[7] it was definitely not to the taste of the more rhythm-and-blues-oriented Haskell and McCulloch, who did not enjoy the sessions and rapidly became disillusioned. Haskell also realised that he would be playing material that he had no sympathy for, and that he would have no creative input into King Crimson for the foreseeable future. Just prior to the release of Lizard, Haskell quit the band acrimoniously, having refused to sing through distortion and electronic effects for live concerts. McCulloch quit immediately afterwards,^[7][11] later joining Arthur Brown's band and subsequently becoming the drummer for Greenslade in 1972. Fripp and Sinfield were forced to return to the arduous process of auditioning new members.

Line-up 2 (1971–mid 1972)

The next King Crimson line-up featured Fripp, Sinfield, Collins and drummer Ian Wallace (a former bandmate of Jon Anderson). Auditionees for the role of singer included Bryan Ferry, Elton John and the band's manager John Gaydon, but the post went to Raymond "Boz" Burrell,^[7] who'd previously worked with his own band Boz People. Fripp approached bass player John Wetton (ex Mogul Thrash) in mid-1971 to complete the line-up, but Wetton declined so that he could accept a place in Family, although he kept in touch with Fripp.^[21] Rick Kemp was eventually selected as the new bass player but turned the band down at the last minute.^[7][11] Once again faced with limited choices, Fripp and Wallace taught Boz to play the bass rather than start the search all over again. Although Boz had not played bass before, he had played enough occasional rhythm guitar to make learning the instrument easier.^[7][11]

In 1971, King Crimson undertook their first tour since 1969 with the new line-up. The concerts were well received, but the roots-based musical inclinations and rock-and-roll lifestyle favoured by Burrell, Collins and Wallace began to alienate the drug-free, more cerebral Fripp. He began to withdraw socially from his colleagues, creating tension that spread to the rest of the band, although King Crimson completed the tour intact.^[11]

Islands

Later in the year King Crimson recorded and released a new album, Islands. The band's warmest-sounding record to date, it was strongly influenced by Miles Davis's orchestral collaborations with Gil Evans and had a loose thematic connection with Homer's Odyssey. It also showed signs of a stylistic divergence between Sinfield (who favoured the softer and more textural jazz-folk approach) and Fripp (who was drawn more towards the harsher instrumental style exemplified by the instrumental "Sailor's Tale" with its dramatic Mellotron use and banjo-inspired guitar technique). Islands also featured the band's one-and-only experiment with a string ensemble ("Prelude: Song of the Gulls") and the raunchy rhythm-and-blues-inspired "Ladies of the Road" – by far the closest representation of the band's live style, and probably the only track that the whole band liked. A hint of trouble to come came when one (unnamed) member of the band allegedly described the more delicate and meditative parts of Islands as "airy-fairy shit".^[11]

Following the next tour, Fripp ousted Sinfield^[7] (with whom his relationship had deteriorated) claiming musical differences and a loss of faith in his partner's ideas.^[11] (Sinfield would go on to release a solo album, Still, featuring all of the current and previous members of King Crimson aside from Fripp, and then reunited with Greg Lake by becoming the principal lyricist for Emerson, Lake & Palmer:^[22] Many years later, he would achieve great success writing pop songs for Bucks Fizz.) The remaining band broke up acrimoniously in rehearsals shortly afterwards, due to Fripp's refusal to incorporate other members' compositions into the band's repertoire. (He later cited this as "quality control" and an attempt to ensure that King Crimson was performing the "right kind" of music.^[11])

The band were persuaded to reform to fulfil their 1972 tour commitments, with the intention of disbanding afterwards.^[7] Recordings from this tour were later released as the Earthbound live album,^[7] noted and criticised for its bootleg-level sound quality and a style that occasionally veered towards funk, with scat singing on the improvised pieces.^[23][24] This was a flagrant sign of the musical rift between Fripp and all three of the other members, the latter of whom were attempting to steer the band towards a rootsier rhythm-and-blues style in open defiance of Fripp.^[11] Despite these problems, relationships across the band gradually improved during the tour to the point where Collins, Burrell and Wallace offered to continue with the band. However, Fripp had already decided to entirely restructure King Crimson with a new musical direction that he felt was entirely unsuited to the current band, and was already recruiting new members.^[11]

Having spent a long time being critically overshadowed by the preceding and subsequent line-ups of King Crimson, the Islands line-up of the band benefited from positive reappraisal in the mid-2000s following the release of several live archive releases (including the double live set Ladies of the Road and various King Crimson Collectors Club recordings) and reassessments by Fripp and other band members. Fripp would subsequently mend his damaged relationships with Wallace and Collins, although not with Burrell.

Line-up 3 (mid-1972–1974)

The third major line-up of King Crimson was radically different from the previous two and the interregnum work, being both the first without saxophone or woodwind and the first to embrace active improvisation as a major musical element. Fripp's first new recruit was the free-improvising percussionist Jamie Muir,^[7] who had previously worked with Sunship and Derek Bailey,^[11] and the UK group Boris.^[25][26][27] In the first of King Crimson's "double drummer" line-ups, he was paired with former Yes drummer Bill Bruford,^[7] who had chosen to leave the commercially successful Yes at the peak of their early career in favour of the comparatively unstable and unpredictable King Crimson.^[28] Fripp also finally secured John Wetton as King Crimson's singer and bass player, recruiting him directly from Family. The line-up was completed by David Cross, a relatively unknown violinist (doubling on keyboards) whom Fripp had encountered through work with music colleges.^[7]

With Sinfield gone, the band recruited a new lyricist, Wetton's friend Richard Palmer-James (the former guitarist for Supertramp).^[7] Unlike Sinfield, Palmer-James played no part in artistic, visual or sonic direction. His sole contributions to King Crimson were his lyrics, sent by post to Wetton from his home in Hamburg.

Larks' Tongues In Aspic

Rehearsals and touring began in late 1972, with the new band's penchant for improvisation (and Jamie Muir's startling wild-man stage presence) immediately gaining King Crimson some excited press attention. A new album – Larks' Tongues in Aspic – was released early the next year.^[7][30] This was the first King Crimson record to demonstrate Fripp's dominant compositional vision, without either the template of Ian McDonald's songwriting and arrangements or the influence of Sinfield's elaborate conceptual lyrics and references, and as such was also the first King Crimson record to escape from the shadow of the debut album.

	"Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part One" (1973) 30 second sample from King Crimson's "Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part One", demonstrating the sound of the mid-1970s incarnation of the band. Clearly audible here are the heavy metal influences, complex structure of the music, improvisation and the percussion of Jamie Muir.
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The band's new sound was exemplified by the album's two-part title track – a significant change from what King Crimson had done before,^[7] drawing from influences as diverse as Bartók, the free music scene, Vaughan Williams and the embryonic heavy metal sound,^[31] and featuring a whisper-to-scream dynamic that was extreme even by the band's previous standards. There were some nods to the past in the continued use of Mellotron, as well as in the inclusion of stately ballads, but the band now featured a small ensemble sound with an emphasis on instrumental music. In particular, the record was permeated by Muir's freewheeling approach to percussion and "found" instrumentation, utilising everything from a prepared drumkit to bicycle-horn bulbs, toys, bullroarers, gongs hit with chains, foley-style sound effects and a joke laughing-bag. Wetton's loud, crisp and overdriven playing style provided King Crimson's most distinctive bass playing to date, while Fripp's guitar playing had taken on a wiry and aggressive character previously seldom heard in the band's studio recordings.

Following more touring, the group became a quartet in early 1973 when Muir suddenly departed. This was initially thought to have been due to an onstage injury – a dropped gong landing on his foot during a gig at the Marquee.^[32] Twenty-seven years later it was revealed that Muir had gone through a personal spiritual crisis and had to immediately withdraw from the band, who themselves had not been told the truth about the situation by their management.^[11] Bruford took on additional Muir-influenced percussion duties to flesh out the band's sound.

Starless and Bible Black

Robert Fripp playing with King Crimson, 1974

During the lengthy tour that followed, the remaining members assembled material for their next album, Starless and Bible Black. This was released in January 1974,^[7][33] earning them a positive Rolling Stone review.^[34] The album built on the achievements of its predecessor, precariously balancing improvised material with careening heavy-metal riffs and songs that recalled both the Beatles' White Album experiments and aspects of electric jazz fusion as performed by the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Miles Davis.

Two-thirds of the album was instrumental, including Fripp's climactic moto perpetuo composition "Fracture" and the atonal sound painting of the title track. For the recording of "Trio" – a hushed and wistful improvised melody featuring Wetton on bass, Cross on violin and Fripp on Mellotron flute, Bruford notoriously contributed "admirable restraint" by sitting with his drumsticks crossed over his chest throughout the piece, understanding that the music did not require him to add anything, and was thus given compositional credit equal to the rest of his bandmates. Although most of Starless and Bible Black had been recorded at live performances,^[31] it was painstakingly edited to sound like another studio album.^[35] Fuller documentation of the quartet's live work was revealed eighteen years later on 1992's four-disc live recording The Great Deceiver, and again on 1997's double live album The Night Watch, which used the original source tapes for much of the material on Starless and Bible Black.

By this time, the band were once again beginning to divide into performance factions. Musically, Fripp found himself positioned between Bruford and Wetton, who played with such force and increasing volume that Fripp once compared them to "a flying brick wall",^[11] and Cross whose amplified acoustic violin was increasingly being drowned out by the rhythm section, forcing him to concentrate more on keyboards. An increasingly frustrated Cross began to withdraw musically and personally, with the result that he was voted out of the group following the band's 1974 tour of Europe and America,^[11] playing his final performance in Central Park in New York.^[7]

Red

The remaining trio reconvened to record a new album, which would be called Red.^[7] Unknown to the other two, Fripp, increasingly disillusioned with the music business, had been turning his attention to the writings of the mystic George Gurdjieff,^[35] and experienced a spiritual crisis-cum-awakening immediately before the band entered the studio. He would later describe his experience as having seemed as if "the top of my head blew off".^[11] Although most of the album material had been written, the transformed Fripp retreated into himself in the studio and "withdrew his opinion", leaving Bruford and Wetton to direct most of the sessions.

In spite of this, or maybe because of it, Red proved to be one of the strongest and most consistent King Crimson albums to date. It has been described as "an impressive achievement" for a group about to disband,^[36] with "intensely dynamic" musical chemistry between the band members. Opening with the harsh, tritone-based instrumental that gave the album its name, the album also featured two relatively short and punchy Wetton-led songs, and a last look back at the period with David Cross via the live improvisation "Providence", which was recorded on the preceding tour. The album finale was the majestic twelve-minute "Starless", which acted, in effect, as a potted musical history of the band, travelling from Mellotron-driven ballad grandeur via intense improvisation to savagely structured metallic attack and back again. Red also included guest appearances by former members and collaborators. In addition to Cross's appearance on "Providence", Robin Miller and Mark Charig returned on oboe and cornet respectively for the first time since Islands, and both Mel Collins and Ian McDonald played saxophones on "Starless".

With one of their strongest albums ready to promote, King Crimson's future prospects looked bright, and talks were underway regarding Ian McDonald rejoining the band. However, Fripp did not want to tour as he felt that the "world was coming to an end".^[35] He was, in any case, becoming discouraged by both the working relationships in the band and by the realities of high-profile rock band activity, which he increasingly saw as overblown and detrimental to both musicians and audience. Two months before the release of Red, Fripp announced that King Crimson had "ceased to exist" and was "completely over for ever and ever".^[18][37] The group formally disbanded on 25 September 1974.^[7] Much later on, it was revealed that Fripp had attempted to interest his managers in a Fripp-free version of King Crimson (consisting of Wetton, Bruford and McDonald) but had been turned down.^[11]

USA

A live album, USA, documenting King Crimson's 1974 tour of the United States, was released in 1975 to critical acclaim,^[23] reviewers calling it "a must" for fans of the band and "insanity you're better off having".^[38][39] Technical issues with some of the original tapes rendered some of David Cross' violin parts inaudible when mixed in 1974, so Roxy Music's Eddie Jobson was brought in to provide studio overdubs of violin and keyboards; further edits were also made to allow for the time limitations of a single vinyl album.^[40] The album was issued on CD for the first time in 2005 with two extra tracks, "Fracture" and "Starless." Another reissue came in 2013, consisting of the entire Asbury Park, New Jersey performance (from which most but not all of the original album had been drawn), presented as-is without the edits and overdubs.

First hiatus (1975-1980)

Between 1975 and 1980, King Crimson was considered to be defunct. In fact, this period turned out to be the first of the band's series of major hiatuses as the members went their separate ways. In 1977, John Wetton and Bill Bruford would briefly reunite in the Crimson-inspired progressive rock band UK (with Eddie Jobson and Allan Holdsworth). While Wetton would move on to sessions and ultimately to the arena rock band Asia, Bruford then pursued his own jazz-rock fusion project (featuring at various times Holdsworth, Jeff Berlin and Dave Stewart) for the remainder of the 1970s. He also performed with Genesis for one tour in 1976 as primary drummer (alongside Phil Collins, who joined Bruford on drums during instrumentals). Ian McDonald, who had nearly rejoined King Crimson after Red, would instead join Foreigner.

Robert Fripp would spend a couple of years out of the music industry studying the teachings of Gurdjieff and J. G. Bennett, returning to performance from 1976 onward as a collaborator with David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Brian Eno and Daryl Hall. During this period he would record his first solo album Exposure and form a four-piece "instrumental beat band" called The League of Gentlemen.

Line-up 4 (1981–1984)

Discipline

Later versions of Discipline featured this knotwork design by Steve Ball.

By 1981, Fripp had opted to fold The League of Gentlemen in favour of a project that was more artistically and commercially ambitious. At the time, he had no intention of reforming King Crimson.^[35] However, his first step was to contact Bill Bruford and ask whether he wanted to join a new band, to which Bruford agreed.^[35] Fripp then contacted guitarist and singer Adrian Belew, a former member of the Frank Zappa and David Bowie touring bands whom Fripp had met when Belew's band Gaga had supported The League of Gentlemen. Belew was, at the time, a major collaborator with Talking Heads both on record and on tour.^[41] Fripp had never been in a band with another guitarist before, other than his stint in Peter Gabriel's 1977 touring band, so the decision to seek a second guitarist was indicative of Fripp's desire to create a sound unlike any of his previous work.^[35] Belew (who agreed to join the new band following his tour commitments with Talking Heads) would also become the band's lyricist.

Having decided against selecting Bruford's colleague Jeff Berlin as bass player (on the grounds that his playing style was "too busy"^[11]), Fripp and Bruford resigned themselves to a long search and began auditioning scores of applicants in New York. On the third day, Fripp absented himself from the auditions after hearing about three musicians and returned several hours later accompanied by Tony Levin, who got the job after playing a single chorus of "Red".^[29] Fripp later confessed that, had he initially known that Levin was available and interested, he would have selected him as first-choice bass player without auditions. In addition to his bass-playing contributions, Levin introduced the band to the use of the Chapman Stick, a ten-string polyphonic two-handed tapping instrument of the guitar family that had both a bass and treble range and that Levin played in an "utterly original style".^[42]

Fripp named the new quartet Discipline, and the band flew to England to rehearse and write. They made their live debut at Moles Club in Bath on 30 April 1981 and went on to tour the UK,^[43] supported by The Lounge Lizards.^[44] By October 1981, the four members of Discipline had made the collective decision to ditch their original name and to reactivate and use the name of King Crimson.^[7]

"The Sheltering Sky" (1981) 33 second sample from King Crimson's "The Sheltering Sky", demonstrating the sound of the 1980s incarnation of the band. This shows gamelan influences and demonstrates Bruford's use of unusual percussion instruments – in this case, an African slit drum – something that he had been doing since first working with Jamie Muir on the Larks' Tongues in Aspic album. Additionally, Fripp and Belew's use of the guitar synthesiser, a staple of much of their 1980s work, can be heard here.

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The new version of King Crimson bore some resemblance to new wave music,^[45] which can be attributed in part to the work of both Belew and Fripp with Talking Heads and David Bowie, Levin's work with Peter Gabriel, and Fripp's work on Exposure and with The League of Gentlemen. With this new band, described by J. D. Considine in The New Rolling Stone Album Guide as having a "jaw-dropping technique" of "knottily rhythmic, harmonically demanding workouts",^[46] Fripp intended to create the sound of a "rock gamelan", with an interlocking rhythmic quality to the paired guitars that he found similar to Indonesian gamelan ensembles.^[35] Fripp concentrated on playing complex picked arpeggios while Belew provided a striking arsenal of guitar sounds (including animal and insect noises, backward envelopes, industrial textures and demented lead guitar screams) utilising a broad range of electronic effects and unorthodox playing styles. Within the rhythm section, Levin brought elements of contemporary urban styles to the basslines, while Bruford experimented, at Fripp's behest, with a cymbal-free drumkit. As with previous incarnations of the band, the new King Crimson line-up also embraced new technology that in turn informed the music – in this case the Roland guitar synthesiser, the Chapman Stick and the Simmons electronic drumkit. Although King Crimson's trademark Mellotrons were no longer present, Fripp's rich and overdriven lead guitar breaks provided a link to the past, with the new band also having turned in animated versions of "Red" and "Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part 2" during the original Discipline tour.

The first album by the new line-up was 1981's Discipline, an immediate benchmark for the new sound and still considered to be one of the band's finest records. The songs were short and snappy by King Crimson standards, with Belew's pop sense and quirky lyrical approach a surprising contrast to previous Crimson grandeur. The music incorporated additional influences including post-punk, latterday funk, go-go and African-styled polyrhythms. While the band's previous taste for improvisation was now tightly reined in, one of the album's two instrumentals (the serene "The Sheltering Sky") had emerged unplanned out of group rehearsals. The noisy, half-spoken/half-shouted "Indiscipline" had been partially written to give Bruford a chance to escape from the strict rhythmic demands of the rest of the album and to play against the beat in any way that he could.^[11]

Beat

Discipline was followed in 1982 by Beat, which was both the first King Crimson album to have been recorded with the same band line-up as the album preceding it^[47] and the first not to have been produced by a member of the group.^[47] The album had a loosely linked theme of the beat generation and its writings,^[48] reflected in song titles such as "Neal and Jack and Me" (inspired by Neal Cassady and Jack Kerouac), "The Howler" (inspired by Allan Ginsberg's "Howl") and "Sartori in Tangier" (inspired by Paul Bowles). Fripp had asked Belew to read Kerouac's novel On the Road^[20] for inspiration, and the album was peppered with themes of travel, disorientation and loneliness. While the record was a noticeably poppier version of the Discipline template (and contained the limpid ballads "Heartbeat" and "Two Hands," the latter with lyrics by Belew's wife Margaret), it also featured the harsh, atonal and entirely improvised "Requiem", which was more reminiscent of the left-field work of King Crimson a la Starless and Bible Black.

The recording process of Beat was fraught, with Belew suffering high stress levels over his duties as frontman, lead singer, and main songwriter. On one occasion, he clashed with Fripp and ordered him out of the studio. Fripp would later sardonically comment "So much for my being the leader of King Crimson".^[11][29] The band's immediate differences were resolved and King Crimson toured again, followed by a recuperative time-out during which Belew recorded a solo album.

Three of a Perfect Pair (1984)

Reconvening to record Three of a Perfect Pair in 1984, the band found the compositional process hard and this time had difficulty reconciling the disparate musical ideas of the four members. They ultimately opted for a "two-sided" album consisting of "the left side"—four of the band's poppier songs and a melodical instrumental—and a "right side" of experimental material that ranged from extended and atonal improvisations in the tradition of the mid-1970s band to a third tightly structured episode in the "Larks' Tongues in Aspic" sequence. The "left side" songs had a loose lyrical theme—this time the workings of the brain (from dysfunction to dream), and its impact on life. The "right side" had more of a preoccupation with technological society, from the lengthy instrumental "Industry" to the sprechstimme piece "Dig Me" (sung from the viewpoint of a scrapped automobile) and saw the band experimenting with more mechanistic sounds. The 2001 CD remaster of the album (designated the 30th Anniversary edition) added "the other side", a collection of remixes and improvisation outtakes plus Levin's tongue-in-cheek vocal piece "The King Crimson Barbershop".

The last concert of the Three Of A Perfect Pair tour (which was also the last concert played by the 1980s line-up) was recorded at the Spectrum in Montreal and subsequently released in 1998 as the live album Absent Lovers: Live in Montreal.

Second hiatus (1985-1993)

Immediately after the Montreal concert, Fripp dissolved King Crimson for the second time, having become dissatisfied with its working methods. Bruford and Belew expressed some frustration over this (with the latter recalling that the first he had heard of the split was when he read about it in Musician magazine).

Despite these circumstances, the musicians remained on fairly amicable terms. Belew would later refer to the band "taking a break" that ultimately lasted for ten years. Bruford established and toured the first line-up of his long-running jazz band Earthworks, while Levin returned to session work. Belew returned to his own solo career and also formed the art-pop band The Bears. Fripp concentrated on teaching (via his Guitar Craft method), although he occasionally worked with David Sylvian in various contexts between the mid-1980s and early 1990s. In 1992, Fripp set up the Discipline Global Mobile record label (DGM) with producer David Singleton. DGM would subsequently be the main home for King Crimson work, although main album releases would be farmed out to larger record companies.

Line-up 5 (1994–1997)

At some point in the early 1990s, Adrian Belew visited Fripp in England and strongly expressed his interest in playing in a reformed King Crimson. Following the end of his 1993 duo tour with David Sylvian, Fripp began to assemble a new version of the band, bringing Belew and Levin back from the 1980s line-up but also adding his former Guitar Craft student Trey Gunn on Chapman Stick and Jerry Marotta (a former Levin bandmate from the Peter Gabriel band) on drums. In the early stages of planning, Marotta was replaced by Pat Mastelotto, who'd played in the recent Sylvian/Fripp band. The last addition to the line-up was another returning member, Bill Bruford, as second drummer.

Fripp explained the unexpected sextet arrangement by claiming to have had the vision of a "double trio" (two guitarists, two bass/Stick players and two drummers) to explore a different type of King Crimson music. Bruford, however, would later assert that he had lobbied his own way into the band, believing that King Crimson was very much "his gig", and that Fripp had come up with the philosophical explanation later. In his 2009 autobiography, he also revealed that one of the conditions Fripp had imposed upon his rejoining was that Bruford would cede all creative control of the band to Fripp.^[29]

Vroooom and B'Boom

The "double trio" convened for rehearsals in Woodstock, New York in 1994 and released the EP Vrooom in the same year. This revealed the new King Crimson sound, which featured elements of the interlocking guitars on Discipline and the heavy rock feel of Red,^[49] but also involved a greater use of ambient electronic sound and ideas from industrial music. In contrast, many of the actual songs – mostly written or finalised by Belew – displayed stronger elements of 1960s pop than before – in particular, a Beatles influence (although Bruford would also refer to the band as sounding like "a dissonant Shadows on steroids"^[29]).

As with previous line-ups, new technology was used for, and informed, the music. In this case, the technology was MIDI, used extensively by Fripp, Belew and Gunn, to which Gunn would add the Warr Guitar (a tapping guitar instrument with which he would replace his Chapman Stick after Vrooom). The apparent twinning of instruments was, in fact, used less than initially suggested. Using Soundscapes (the greatly expanded digital successor to Frippertronics) Fripp's guitar took on more of a textural and ambient role in many pieces. Gunn's Stick and Warr Guitar playing, rather than staying in the bass register with Levin, covered a proportion of the guitar arpeggios and functioned as another lead instrument (as well as producing experimental and distorted sounds and acting as a MIDI trigger). The main use of twinned instrumentation was in the drumming. Bruford initially took on a more exploratory role over Mastelotto's steady beat, but this soon shifted toward a more equitable sharing of percussive roles.

The album "VROOOM", along with "B'Boom" had some songs that merged with "THRAK"(1995).

The revived band made its concert debut in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 28 September 1994. The October concerts were released as the live album B'Boom: Live in Argentina in August 1995). In addition to a large body of new material, the band played three mid-1970s pieces ("Red", "Larks' Tongues In Aspic Part 2" and "The Talking Drum") and six songs from the 1980s repertoire, predominantly from Discipline.

THRAK and THRaKaTTaK

King Crimson released their next full-length studio album, THRAK in April 1995. Containing revised versions of most of the tracks on Vrooom, THRAK was described by reviewers as having "jazz-scented rock structures, characterised by noisy, angular, exquisite guitar interplay" and an "athletic, ever-inventive rhythm section,"^[51] whilst being in tune with the sound of alternative rock musicians in the mid-1990s.^[52] Examples of the band's efforts to integrate their multiple elements could be heard on the complex post-prog songs "Dinosaur" and "Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream" as well as the more straightforward "One Time" and the funk-pop inspired "People." Instrumentally, the album featured a couple of clear descendants of the driving "Red" ("VROOOM" and "VROOOM VROOOM"), the drum duet "B'Boom," the savagely displaced and rhythmic "THRAK" and a couple of brief solo Soundscapes from Fripp. The album also featured the brief return of Mellotron to the band's sonic palette.

During 1995 and 1996 King Crimson continued to tour. In 1996, the band released the challenging avant-garde live album THRaKaTTaK, which consisted entirely of concert improvisations from the midsection of performances of "THRAK," digitally combined by Fripp's DGM partner David Singleton into an hour-long extended improvisation.^[53] A more conventional live recording from the period was later made available on the 2001 double CD release Vrooom Vrooom, as was a 1995 concert on the 2003 Déjà Vrooom DVD.

Although musically exciting, the Double Trio was expensive and cumbersome to run, which in turn led to insecurity. In mid-1997, the band gathered for rehearsals in Nashville, Tennessee that came to a compositional impasse in which none of the generated material appeared to satisfy Fripp. At this point, the friction between Fripp and a particularly exasperated Bruford effectively ended the latter's time as a King Crimson member.^[29] Bruford would later comment "by now, Robert and I couldn't even agree where to have dinner. And if you can't agree that, you sure as heck can't play together."^[29] This, plus the lack of workable material and coherent group ideas, could have broken the band up altogether. Instead, the six members opted for an alternative solution – the ProjeKcts.

ProjeKcts 1-X (1997–1999)

Rather than split up absolutely, the six musicians of the Double Trio decided to work in smaller "sub-groups" – or "fraKctalisations", according to Fripp – called ProjeKcts. This enabled the group to continue developing musical ideas and searching for Crimson's next direction without the practical difficulty and expense of convening all six members in one place at once. As with previous King Crimson endeavours, the ProjeKcts embraced new technology – in this case, Mastelotto's electronic drum loop devices, Trey Gunn's MIDI-triggered "talkbox" and the new electronic Roland V-Drums played by both Mastelotto and Belew. (Bruford had declined to play the V-drums despite Fripp's request). Various King Crimson members have continued to create new ProjeKcts up until the present day, as and where necessary (and to cover hiatuses in main group activity).

The first four ProjeKcts played live in the U.S., Japan and the UK during 1998 and 1999 and released a number of recordings that were in many respects similar to the THRaKaTTaK album, demonstrating a high degree of free improvisation.^[46] These have been collectively described by music critic J. D. Considine as "frequently astonishing" but also as lacking in melody, and thus too difficult for the casual listener.^[46]

• ProjeKct One (Fripp, Bruford, Gunn and Levin) – assembled for a four-night stint in London. The band took on an entirely improvised free-jazz direction and was primarily led by the more jazz-inclined Bruford and Levin (who, for this project, favoured acoustic drums and upright bass, respectively). This can also be seen as Bruford's final attempt to work within a King Crimson context.
• ProjeKct Two (Fripp, Gunn and Belew) – explored more Crimsonic instrumental structures with plenty of MIDI triggering and virtual instrumentation (such as impossible piano lines played via MIDI guitar) plus the unusual and stimulating element of Belew playing electronic drums rather than guitar. The music was generally more light-hearted and humorous than most King Crimson-associated material.
• ProjeKct Three (Fripp, Gunn and Mastelotto) – explored similar territory to ProjeKct Two but was a much faster-paced experiment driven primarily by Mastelotto's multi-layered electronic rhythm approach (which drew extensively on high-speed drum and bass and electronica)
• ProjeKct Four (Fripp, Gunn, Mastelotto and Levin) explored similar territory to ProjeKct Three, although it actually preceded ProjeKct Three into action; however, the presence of Levin on bass and Stick resulted in a much fuller "live band" sound and a more driving avant-rock approach.
• ProjeKct X – a studio-only rearrangement of the 2000 King Crimson line-up, with composition and ideas led by the rhythm section rather than by Fripp and Belew; they would later release an album titled Heaven and Earth exclusively released in Japan by Pony Canyon.

Line-up 6 (2000–2004)

By the time that the initial run of four ProjeKcts had come to an end, Bill Bruford had finally left the King Crimson world in order to fully embrace his jazz work with Earthworks and others. At the same time, Tony Levin's other commitments as a session and touring musician (mostly to live work with Peter Gabriel and Seal) were obstructing future King Crimson activity. Fortunately, Bruford's departure and Levin's lack of availability suited Adrian Belew's own preference for working with a smaller unit (following the logistical challenges of the Double Trio). It was decided amongst the band that Levin could withdraw amicably from King Crimson on an open-ended and hopefully temporary basis. (At the time, Fripp stated that he still considered Levin to be a King Crimson member, albeit an inactive "fifth member".) The remaining four active members of King Crimson (Belew, Fripp, Trey Gunn, and Pat Mastelotto) continued with the band, sometimes referring to themselves as the "Double Duo" in a tongue-in-cheek reference to the previous line-up.

Despite featuring two-thirds of the previous band's personnel (and no new members), this incarnation of the band would be strongly distinct from the Double Trio and was effectively a different, rather than reduced, line-up. The altered membership and the experience of the ProjeKcts led to changes in role. While still playing Warr Guitar, Gunn began to concentrate on playing in the bass register, and would also perform on the baritone guitar and Ashbory silicone-string bass guitar. Mastelotto continued to employ the electronic V-Drums and rhythm-loop machines which had been used for the ProjeKcts, while Belew took the step of entirely embracing Fripp's New Standard Tuning on guitar.

The ConstruKction of Light

King Crimson recorded their next album, The ConstruKction of Light,^[18] in Adrian Belew's basement and garage near Nashville. The results were released in 2000 and proved to be the band's most hard-rocking album to date. All of the pieces were metallic and harsh in sound, similar to the work of contemporary alternative metal bands such as Tool, with a distinct electronic texture, a heavy, processed drum sound from Mastelotto, and a different take on the interlocked guitar sound that the band had used since the 1980's. With the exception of a parodic industrial blues, sung by Belew through a voice changer, under the pseudonym of "Hooter J. Johnson," the songs were unrelentingly complex and challenging to the listener, with plenty of rhythmic displacement to add to the harsh textures.

The album also contained a lengthy fourth instalment of the "Larks' Tongues in Aspic" series and another piece, "FraKCtured," which effectively rewrote the 1973 piece "Fracture." Fripp argued that the original "Fracture" had been written for and interpreted by a specific group of musicians, and that to pursue a similar theme in 2000 it had been necessary to rewrite the music in accordance with the skills and personalities of the current line-up. This explanation, however, did not protect the album from criticism for apparently lacking new ideas.^[54]

Although the whole band contributed to arrangements, the basic material on The ConstruKction of Light was almost entirely composed by Belew (songs) and Fripp (instrumentals). To avoid creative frustration, the band recorded a parallel album at the same time under the name of ProjeKct X, called Heaven and Earth.^[55] This second album was conceived and led by Mastelotto and Gunn (with Fripp and Belew playing subsidiary roles in the band) and was a further development of the polyrhythmic/dance music approach seen earlier in the ProjeKcts. The album's title track was also included as a bonus track on The ConstruKCtion of Light. Like The ConstruKction of Light, Heaven and Earth was criticized for an apparent lack of new ideas.^[55]

King Crimson toured to support the records, releasing a live document of the results as the triple live album Heavy ConstruKction. This showed the band constantly switching between the structured album pieces and ferocious ProjeKct-style Soundscape-and-percussion improvisations. Among King Crimson's live engagements were shows opening for self-confessed Crimson disciples Tool in 2001. At one of these, Tool's lead singer Maynard James Keenan joked onstage: "For me, being on stage with King Crimson is like Lenny Kravitz playing with Led Zeppelin, or Britney Spears onstage with Debbie Gibson."^[56] Former Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones also performed in some live shows,^[57] most notably at the Gothic Theatre in Denver, Colorado.

Level Five and Happy with What You Have to Be Happy With; 21st Century Schizoid Band

Later in 2001, King Crimson released a limited edition live EP called Level Five, which featured three new pieces. A version of "Deception of the Thrush" (a ProjeKct track now regularly featuring in the Crimson live set) plus the new tracks "Dangerous Curves" and "Virtuous Circle" suggested that the band was heading back towards a broader dynamic including quieter, more textural work.

In 2002, King Crimson released another EP Happy with What You Have to Be Happy With.^[58] This featured eleven tracks (including a live version of "Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part IV") and confirmed that the band were moving back towards greater diversity. Half of the tracks were brief processed vocal snippets sung by Belew, and the songs themselves varied between gamelan pop, Soundscapes and slightly parodic takes on heavy metal and blues.

In keeping with the band's creative stance, King Crimson continued to ignore almost all of their 1960s and 1970s material while continuing to tour and record new music. However, several former King Crimson members (including two of the band’s founders) joined forces in the 21st Century Schizoid Band. Active between 2002 and 2004, this project engaged in several tours to revive and play King Crimson material drawn from the band’s 1969 debut In the Court of the Crimson King through to 1974's Red. The 21st Century Schizoid Band featured Ian McDonald, Mel Collins, Peter Giles and Michael Giles (the latter subsequently replaced by Ian Wallace). It was fronted by Jakko Jakszyk, a singer-songwriter and guitarist, as well as Michael Giles' son-in-law, who had previous history with 64 Spoons, The Lodge, Level 42 and various Henry Cow and Canterbury scene-related projects.^[59]

The Power to Believe

Level Five and Happy with What You Have to Be Happy With both acted as work-in-progress reveals for King Crimson's 2003 album The Power to Believe,^[60] which Fripp described as "the culmination of three years of Crimsonising". The album incorporated reworked and/or retitled versions of "Deception of the Thrush" and four of the EP tracks, plus a 1997 Soundscape with added instrumentation and vocals, and also used lyrics from an Adrian Belew solo song ("All Her Love Is Mine") as a linking theme across four songs. It did, however, confirm the band's return to more diverse songwriting and instrumentation, with a greater reliance on space and Soundscapes and with Mastelotto using more ProjeKct-style percussion textures. Songs such as "Elektrik" fused 1970s, 1980s and 21st century Crimson styles, and the album ran the gamut from metal to ambient. Once again, the band toured to support the album, resulting in the 2003 live album EleKtrik: Live in Japan, recorded in Tokyo.

In late November 2003, Trey Gunn announced his departure from King Crimson (to pursue other collaborations and a solo career) with Tony Levin immediately being reinstalled as King Crimson's bass and Stick player. The band reconvened with for rehearsals in early 2004. but following these rehearsals King Crimson was placed on hold for another three years. Although the band did not formally split up, by now Fripp was continually reassessing his desire to work with King Crimson in view of his dislike of the music industry and what he saw as the unsympathetic aspects of the life of a touring musician.

Although Gunn would not return to the band, he would continue his active association with Mastelotto in projects such as TU (which the pair had begun during The Power to Believe rehearsals) and KTU.

Third hiatus and related projects (2004–2007)

Adrian Belew in 2006

While King Crimson remained inactive, various members ensured that the band’s music remained in play. Fripp concentrated mostly on solo work and guest appearances, but briefly teamed up with Belew in ProjeKct Six, which played four shows in the north-eastern United States in 2006 (opening for Porcupine Tree).^[61] Belew formed his own Power Trio (completed by siblings Julie Slick on bass guitar and Eric Slick on drums), with whom he performed both solo songs and several King Crimson songs from his own stints in the band.

From 2007, Levin and Mastellotto played together in their Stick Men trio with Stick player Michael Bernier (replaced in 2010 by Guitar Craft touch-guitarist Markus Reuter), which included several King Crimson songs and instrumentals in live sets and on albums. Mastellotto also joined forces with Reuter in the experimental duo Tuner (who have been known to rework the mid-'80s King Crimson instrumental "Industry" during concerts).

Line-up 7 (2007–2009)

A new King Crimson line-up was announced in late 2007,^[62] consisting of Fripp, Belew, Levin, Mastelotto, and a new second drummer – Gavin Harrison.^[63] Although best known as the drummer for Porcupine Tree (a position he continued to hold alongside his King Crimson work), Harrison had a formidable reputation as one of the best session drummers in the music industry and had had a long career including work with Level 42, The Lodge, Sam Brown and innumerable others (including a lengthy association with 21st Century Schizoid Band's Jakko Jakszyk). He was also King Crimson's first new British member since 1972.

The new five-man line-up began rehearsals in spring 2008.^[64] In August of the same year, the band set out on a brief four-city tour in preparation for the group's 40th Anniversary in 2009. Live, the band revealed an increasingly drum-centric direction but no new material or any extended improvisations. However, many of the pieces from the back catalogue received striking new arrangements, most notably the renditions of "Neurotica," "Sleepless," and "Level Five", all of which were given percussion-heavy overhauls, presumably to highlight the return to the dual-drummer format.

On 20 August 2008, DGMLive issued a download-only release of the 7 August 2008 concert in Chicago. More rehearsals and shows had been intended for 2009, but these were cancelled following scheduling clashes with various members' other projects. King Crimson immediately began another hiatus pending further developments (in particular Fripp's preoccupation with the ongoing litigation against King Crimson's outstanding debtors, as well as his attempts to settle his own financial debts and organise his personal life).^[65] In September 2008 Belew, Levin and Mastelotto teamed up with Eddie Jobson (ex-UK) and Eric Slick to play a short Crimson-related set at a Russian festival under the name of “Crimson Project”.^[66]

Fourth hiatus (2009–2013)

While all King Crimson members kept themselves busy with other projects, Adrian Belew in particular continued to lobby for reviving the band. He discussed the state of the band with Fripp on several occasions over the course of 2009 and 2010: in June 2010, he suggested a temporary reunion of the 1980's King Crimson quartet for a 30th anniversary tour.^[67][68][69] The reunion idea was politely turned down by Bruford and Fripp, with Bruford commenting, "it's precisely because I loved the '80's band so much that I would be highly unlikely to try to recreate the same thing, a mission I fear destined to failure",^[70] while Fripp pleaded commitment to other activities (using the expression "rather than saying no, I can't say yes") and commented that he would "rather spend his energies toward new music, although not in the near future."^[69] On 5 December 2010, Fripp wrote a diary entry on his DGM website outlining his current stage of involvement in the music industry. The diary entry suggested that the King Crimson "switch" had been set to "off" and detailed a number of reasons why he was not currently interested in performing or writing with the band.^[71]

In 2010, a series of improvised guitar duets by Fripp and Jakko Jakszyk eventually led to a fuller song-based project, released in 2011 as the album A Scarcity of Miracles. Credited to Jakszyk Fripp Collins (and subtitled "A King Crimson ProjeKct"), the album band featured Jakszyk, Fripp and Mel Collins as main players and composers, with Tony Levin on bass guitar/Chapman Stick and Gavin Harrison on drums. At one point, Fripp referred to the band as "P7"^[72] although unlike previous ProjeKcts it was based around fully finished and carefully crafted original songs. The ProjeKct did not tour or release another album, but inspired speculation amongst King Crimson fans as to whether this was a new line-up of the main band under another name. Although Fripp denied it at the time, this suspicion would eventually prove to be correct (although not all of the pieces and correct circumstances were in place yet).

Meanwhile the 2008 "Crimson Project" was superseded by the Crimson ProjeKct, a six-piece band fusing Stick Men (Levin, Mastellotto, Reuter) with the Adrian Belew Power Trio (Belew, Julie Slick and new drummer Tobias Ralph). This band went on to increasingly take charge of live performances of the main King Crimson repertoire (1974-2003), and continues to tour and release live recordings up until the present day.^[73]

On 3 August 2012, in an interview with the Financial Times published on 3 August 2012, Fripp formally announced his retirement from the music industry, leaving the future of King Crimson uncertain.^[74][75][76] His retirement would last for less than a year.

Line-up 8 (2013-present)

On 6 September 2013, Fripp unexpectedly announced King Crimson's return to work with a new line-up, stating that "this is a very different reformation to what has gone before: seven players, four English and three American, with three drummers. The Seven-Headed Beast of Crim is in Go! mode".^[4] Fripp cited several reasons for King Crimson's return, varying from the practical (the likely financial settling of his dispute with Universal Music Group, plus imminent completion of his Guitar Circle book and DU Reading Project)^[77] to the whimsical: "I was becoming too happy. Time for a pointed stick."^[78]

The new line-up formally ended Adrian Belew's thirty-two year tenure as King Crimson's frontman, as he was not invited to rejoin the band (due to Fripp considering him "not right" for the new approach). Instead, the new King Crimson encompassed the team which had recorded A Scarcity of Miracles two years previously (Robert Fripp, Tony Levin, Mel Collins, Gavin Harrison and Jakko Jakszyk) while reinstating Pat Mastelloto from the 2009 lineup and adding Bill Rieflin (drums, Mellotron, synthesizer and backing vocals).^[79]

The result was a significantly reorganised ensemble - Jakszyk (on lead vocals and guitar) was fronting a band with a substantially larger percussion lineup, and with wind instruments returning to the roster for the first time in forty-two years. Collins, a returning King Crimson member, had previously played in the band's 1971-72 line-up. Rieflin (a multi-instrumentalist who had previously played drums for R.E.M., Ministry and others) had been a member of Fripp's League of Crafty Guitarists, playing both guitar and drums: he had also collaborated with Fripp on both the Slow Music project and the Toyah-fronted band The Humans. Both Fripp and Trey Gunn had previously assisted Rieflin in the recording of his 1999 solo album Birth of a Giant (as well as the improvisational The Repercussions of Angelic Behavior, credited to all three musicians and recorded during the Birth of a Giant sessions).

In a September 2013 diary entry, Fripp provided some hints regarding the new line-up's musical approach: "The Point Of Crim-Seeing was of a conventional backline – Gavin Harrison, Bill Rieflin, Tony Levin and Pat Mastelotto - reconfigured as the frontline, with Mel Collins, Jakko Jakszyk and myself as backline."^[78] In a brief interview with Uncut magazine in March 2014, Fripp revealed that King Crimson had no current plans to make studio recordings but would instead play "reconfigured" versions of existing band material.^[80]

In the same Uncut interview, Fripp confirmed that the reconstituted band would concentrate on performances in North or South America, with plans for British concerts depending on "a number of circumstances."^[78][80] The first shows featuring the new formation were announced for September 2014 in New York City.^[81] The new band's live debut took place at the Egg, Albany, New York State on September 9 featuring a setlist focused predominantly on 1970s material (from Red, Islands, Larks' Tongues in Aspic and In the Wake of Poseidon) but also including a few songs from King Crimson's 1990s and 2000s incarnations, several improvisations and the band's signature song "21st Century Schizoid Man" (from In the Court of the Crimson King). Displaying some continuity with the Jakszyk/Fripp/Collins project which had initiated the new lineup, King Crimson also played the title track from A Scarcity of Miracles.^[82] A new European tour is now in the works in the summer of 2015 while at the same time having the release of the album Live at the Orpheum released earlier in the year.

Maintaining King Crimson's work (21st Century Schizoid Band, Stick Men, Tuner, Jakszyk Fripp Collins and Crimson ProjeKct)

Since the early 2000s, several bands containing former, recent or current King Crimson members have toured and recorded, performing King Crimson music.

Active between 2002 and 2004, the 21st Century Schizoid Band reunited several former King Crimson members who'd played on the band's first four albums. Fronted by guitarist/singer Jakko Jakszyk (the only non-Crimson member at the time), the band also featured Ian McDonald, Mel Collins, Peter Giles and Michael Giles (the latter subsequently replaced by Ian Wallace). The band engaged in several tours, played material from the band's 1960s and 1970s catalogue, and recorded several live albums.^[59]

Since 2007, Tony Levin has led the trio Stick Men, also featuring Pat Mastelotto and Chapman Stick player Michael Bernier (replaced in 2010 by touch guitarist and former Fripp student Markus Reuter). This band includes and interprets King Crimson compositions (from the Red to THRak periods) in their live sets. Reuter and Mastelotto also play together as the duo Tuner, who have been known to rework the mid-'80s King Crimson instrumental "Industry" live. During his solo career Adrian Belew has performed versions of certain King Crimson songs written predominantly by himself, such as "Dinosaur," as well as ensemble pieces like "Frame by Frame" and "Neurotica".

In 2011, a band called Jakszyk Fripp Collins (and subtitled "A King Crimson ProjeKct") released an album called A Scarcity of Miracles. The band featured Jakko Jakszyk, Robert Fripp and Mel Collins as main players and composers, with Tony Levin and Gavin Harrison covering bass guitar/Chapman Stick and drums respectively. At one point, Fripp referred to the band as "P7".^[72] Unusually for a ProjeKCt, it was based around fully finished and carefully crafted original songs (initially derived from improvisations). For a while, King Crimson fans debated whether this was a new line-up of the main band under another name. However, the project did not tour or release another album.

Since 2008, a band called either Crimson Project or Crimson ProjeKCt has increasingly taken charge of the King Crimson repertoire (1974-2003) in live performance. The initial Crimson Project line-up (Belew, Levin, Mastelotto, Eddie Jobson and Adrian Belew Power Trio drummer Eric Slick) formed in September 2008 to play a short set at a Russian festival.^[66] In 2011 this line-up was superseded by Crimson ProjeKct, a six-piece band which effectively fused the Adrian Belew Power Trio (Belew, bass player Julie Slick and drummer Tobias Ralph) with Stick Men (Levin, Mastelotto and Markus Reuter). This band continues to perform King Crimson material live and to release live recordings.^[73]

Musical style and influences

Music sourced from outside the rock canon

The band's music was initially grounded in the rock of the 1960s, especially the acid rock and psychedelic rock movements. The band played Donovan's "Get Thy Bearings" in concert,^[20] and were known to play The Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" in their rehearsals.^[20] However, for their own compositions, King Crimson (unlike the rock bands that had come before them) largely stripped away the blues-based foundations of rock music and replaced them with influences derived from classical composers. The first incarnation of King Crimson played the Mars section of Gustav Holst's suite The Planets as a regular part of their live set^[20] and Fripp has frequently cited the influence of Béla Bartók.^[83] As a result of this influence, In the Court of the Crimson King is frequently viewed as the nominal starting point of the symphonic rock or progressive rock movements.^[5] King Crimson also initially displayed strong jazz influences, most obviously on its signature track "21st Century Schizoid Man".^[5][84] The band also drew on English folk music for compositions such as "Moonchild"^[85] and "I Talk to the Wind."^[84][85]

The 1981 reunion of the band brought in even more elements, displaying the influence of gamelan music^[35] and of late 20th century classical composers such as Philip Glass,^[86] Steve Reich,^[87] and Terry Riley.^[88] For its 1994 reunion, King Crimson reassessed both the mid-1970s and 1980s approaches in the light of new technology, intervening music forms such as grunge, and further developments in industrial music, as well as expanding the band's ambient textural content via Fripp's Soundscapes looping approach.

Compositional approaches

Several King Crimson compositional approaches have remained constant from the earliest versions of the band to the present. These include:

• The use of a gradually building rhythmic motif.^[89] These include "The Devil's Triangle" (an adaptation and variation on the Gustav Holst piece Mars played by the original King Crimson, based on a complex pulse in 5/4 time over which a skirling melody is played on a Mellotron), 1973's "The Talking Drum" (from Larks' Tongues in Aspic), 1984's "Industry" (from Three of a Perfect Pair) and 2003's "Dangerous Curves" (from The Power to Believe and the Level Five EP).^[90]
• An instrumental piece (often embedded as a break in a song) in which the band plays an ensemble passage of considerable rhythmic and polyrhythmic complexity.^[91] An early example is the band's initial signature tune "21st Century Schizoid Man," but the Larks' Tongues in Aspic series of compositions (as well as pieces of similar intent such as "THRAK" and "Level Five") go deeper into polyrhythmic complexity, delving into rhythms that wander into and out of general synchronisation with each other, but that all 'finish' together through polyrhythmic synchronisation. These polyrhythms were particularly abundant in the band's 1980s work, which contained gamelan-like rhythmic layers and continual overlaid staccato patterns in counterpoint.
• The composition of difficult solo passages for individual instruments, such as the guitar break on "Fracture" on Starless and Bible Black.^[35]
• Pieces with a loud, aggressive sound akin to heavy metal music.
• The juxtaposition of ornate tunes and ballads with unusual, often dissonant noises (such as "Cirkus" on Lizard, "Ladies of the Road" from Islands and "Eyes Wide Open" from The Power to Believe).
• The use of improvisation.
• Ascending note structure (e.g. "Facts of Life" and "THRAK").

Improvisation

King Crimson have incorporated improvisation into their performances and studio recordings from the beginning, some of which has been embedded into loosely composed pieces such as "Moonchild" or "THRaK".^[92] Most of the band's performances over the years have included at least one stand-alone improvisation where the band simply started playing and took the music wherever it went, sometimes including passages of restrained silence, as with Bill Bruford's contribution to the improvised "Trio". The earliest example of an unambiguously improvising King Crimson on record is the spacious, oft-criticised extended coda of "Moonchild" from In the Court of the Crimson King.^[93][94]

Rather than using the standard jazz or blues "jamming" format for improvisation (in which one soloist at a time takes centre stage while the rest of the band lies back and plays along with established rhythm and chord changes), King Crimson improvisation is a group affair in which each member of the band is able to make creative decisions and contributions as the music is being played.^[95] Individual soloing is largely eschewed; each musician is to listen to each other and to the group sound, to be able to react creatively within the group dynamic. A slightly similar method of continuous improvisation ("everybody solos and nobody solos") was initially used by King Crimson's jazz-fusion contemporaries Weather Report. Fripp has used the metaphor of "white magic" to describe this process, in particular when the method works particularly well.^[35]

Similarly, King Crimson's improvised music is rarely jazz or blues-based, and varies so much in sound that the band has been able to release several albums consisting entirely of improvised music, such as the Thrakattak album. Occasionally, particular improvised pieces will be recalled and reworked in different forms at different shows, becoming more and more refined and eventually appearing on official studio releases (the most recent example being "Power to Believe III", which originally existed as the stage improvisation "Deception of the Thrush", a piece played onstage for a long time before appearing on record).^[96]

Influence on other bands

King Crimson have been influential both on the early 1970s progressive rock movement and numerous contemporary artists.

• First-wave progressive rock bands such as Genesis and Yes were directly influenced by the band's initial style of symphonic mellotron rock,^[18] and many King Crimson band members went on to other notable bands: Greg Lake to Emerson, Lake & Palmer; Ian Mcdonald to co-found Foreigner; Boz Burrell to Bad Company and John Wetton to the supergroups UK and Asia (the latter of which also drew members from Yes, ELP, and The Buggles). Some aspects of the work of Emerson, Lake & Palmer can be seen as Greg Lake's attempt to continue the early work of King Crimson. The veteran Canadian hard rock/progressive rock band Rush cites King Crimson as a strong early influence on their sound (drummer Neil Peart specifically credits the adventurous and innovative style of original King Crimson drummer Michael Giles as a very important influence on his own approach to percussion).
• Latterday progressive rock bands also cite King Crimson as an influence. These include Porcupine Tree^[18] who, as with Tool, have invited King Crimson (this time, in the form of ProjeKct Six) to play as their support band.^[61] Progressive/heavy metal rock band Between the Buried and Me are heavily influenced by King Crimson, covering the song "Three of a Perfect Pair" on their 2006 album The Anatomy Of, as are Primus, whose Les Claypool routinely opened his 2002 tour concerts of Colonel Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade with a cover of the song Thela Hun Ginjeet. Progressive rock/metal band Dream Theater included a cover of King Crimson's "Larks Tongues In Aspic, Pt. 2" on disk 2 of the special edition of their 2009 release, Black Clouds & Silver Linings.
• King Crimson's influence extends to alternative rock bands of the 1990s and 2000s. Nirvana are known to have been influenced by King Crimson as a result of Kurt Cobain having mentioned the importance of the Red album to him.^[52][97][98] Tool are widely held to have been heavily influenced by King Crimson,^{[18][56][99][100]} with their vocalist Maynard James Keenan even joking on a tour with them that "Now you know who we ripped off. Just don't tell anyone, especially the members of King Crimson."^[101] Los Angeles punk band Bad Religion quotes the lyrics of "21st Century Schizoid Man" in their hit single 21st Century (Digital Boy). Steve Steele, mentioned in an interview^[102] that King Crimson was a prime influence on his songwriting and arrangements, and in a biography,^[103] he cites that other than traditional literary sources, Richard Palmer-James (King Crimson's lyricist from 1972 to 1974), is one of the only lyricists he credits as having a personal impact.
• King Crimson have frequently been cited as pioneers of progressive metal. Members of both Iron Maiden and Mudvayne^[104] have cited King Crimson as an influence. The angular, dissonant guitar patterns associated with Fripp's distinctive approach are also evident in the music of Thrash-Metal pioneers Voivod, especially in the band's mid-period work.^[105] Voivod also did a cover of "21st Century Schizoid Man" on their 1997 recording Phobos.
• King Crimson have also provided source material and inspiration for hip-hop and dance music acts. Rap star Kanye West sampled King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man" on his 2010 single "Power" and British hip-hoppers The Brotherhood used a prominent sample from "Starless" to open their debut album. British techno/house music act Opus III covered "I Talk to the Wind" on their 1992 album Mind Fruit and released the track as a single.
• King Crimson has also influenced Japanese noise artist Merzbow, who has stated his passion for progressive genre artists and, among those, King Crimson. This influence includes taking samples from "The Great Deceiver" for a track on Spiral Honey, and the name of his collaboration with Japanese band Boris, Walrus/Groon, taken from one of Crimson's improvisational pieces called Groon.

Personnel

The current line-up of King Crimson is:

• Robert Fripp — guitars, guitar synthesiser/MIDI guitar, Soundscapes, keyboards (1968–74, 1981–84, 1994–present) - in previous lineups, Fripp has also been credited with playing Mellotron, "devices", "allsorts" and "sundry implements"
• Mel Collins — saxophones, flutes (1970–1972, 2013–present, guested in 1970 and 1974) - in previous lineups, Collins has also played Mellotron and sung backing vocals
• Tony Levin — bass guitars, Chapman Stick, upright bass, backing vocals (1981–1984, 1994–1998, 2003–present) - in previous lineups, Levin has also played synthesizer
• Pat Mastelotto — acoustic and electronic drums and percussion (1994–present)
• Gavin Harrison — drums (2007–present)
• Jakko Jakszyk — guitars, lead vocals, flute (2013–present)
• Bill Rieflin — custom percussion, keyboards, backing vocals (2013–present)

This formation was announced in September 2013, with its first shows taking place in September 2014.^[79]

Greg Lake, 1978

King Crimson has had 21 musicians pass through its ranks as full band members. Many others have collaborated with the band at various points in lyric-writing, studio recordings, and live performances. Most of the band members had notable musical careers outside the band, to the extent that it has been calculated that there are over fifteen-hundred releases on which members and former members of King Crimson appear.^[106]

Robert Fripp has been the sole consistent member of King Crimson throughout the group's history. He has stated that he does not necessarily consider himself the band's leader and instead describes King Crimson as "a way of doing things".^[35] Fripp has also noted that he never originally intended to be seen as the head of the group.^[14] However, Fripp has strongly dominated the band's musical approach and compositional approach since their second album (albeit with other members tending to write the more song-oriented elements, to the point where other members have left the band because of creative frustration, notably Ian McDonald, Gordon Haskell and Mel Collins). Trey Gunn, who played with the group between 1994 and 2003, has stated that "King Crimson is Robert's vision. Period."^[11]

Since 1997, band hiatuses, collective creative stallings or other periods of inactivity have led by a series of related bands or collaborations called ProjeKcts in which Crimsonic ideas have been explored. All of these have included Fripp, with the exception of the current Crimson ProjeKct (for which Fripp gave permission for "Crimson" to be used as part of the name, despite his non-involvement).

Former members

• Peter Sinfield — lyrics, synthesiser, keyboards, illumination, artwork (1968–1972)
• Greg Lake — bass guitar, lead vocals (1968–1970)
• Michael Giles — drums, percussion, backing vocals (1968–1969, guested in 1970)
• Ian McDonald — flute, saxophones, clarinet, bass clarinet, mellotron, keyboards, vibraphone, backing vocals (1968–1969, guested in 1974)
• Gordon Haskell — bass guitar, lead vocals (1970, guested in 1970)
• Andy McCulloch — drums (1970)
• Ian Wallace — drums, percussion, backing vocals (1971–1972; died 2007)
• Boz Burrell — bass guitar, lead vocals, choreography (1971–1972; died 2006)
• Bill Bruford — acoustic and electronic drums and percussion (1972–1974, 1981–1984, 1994–1997)
• John Wetton — bass guitar, lead vocals, occasional piano, guitar and lyrics (1972–1974)
• David Cross — violin, viola, mellotron, electric piano, keyboards, flute (1972–1974)
• Jamie Muir — various percussion, drums, allsorts (1972–1973)
• Adrian Belew — guitars, lead vocals, guitar synthesiser/MIDI guitar, electronic percussion, lyrics, occasional drums (1981–1984, 1994–2013)
• Trey Gunn — Warr Guitar, Chapman Stick, baritone guitar, Ashbory silicone-string bass, backing vocals, "talker" (1994–2003)

Additional/guest musicians

• Keith Tippett — acoustic and electric pianos on In the Wake of Poseidon, Lizard and Islands
• Peter Giles — bass guitar on In the Wake of Poseidon
• Mark Charig — cornet on Lizard, Islands and Red (from Keith Tippett Sextet and Centipede)
• Robin Miller — oboe and cor anglais on Lizard, Islands and Red
• Nick Evans — trombone on Lizard
• Jon Anderson — guest lead vocals on Lizard (from Yes)
• Rick Kemp — bass guitar, played for two weeks in band before vocalist Boz Burrell was taught to play the instrument
• Harry Miller — double bass on Islands
• Paulina Lucas — soprano vocals on Islands
• Uncredited musicians — strings on Islands
• Hunter MacDonald — synthesiser and engineering on Earthbound
• Richard Palmer-James — lyrics on Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Starless and Bible Black and Red
• Uncredited musician — cello on Red
• Eddie Jobson — violin and electric piano studio overdubs on USA
• Margaret Belew — source text for "Indiscipline" (on Discipline) and lyrics for "Two Hands" (on Beat). (Margaret Belew was an artist and was also Adrian Belew's wife during the time of King Crimson line-up 4).
• David Singleton - post-production editing & recomposition/found sound on THRaKaTTak and The Power to Believe

Timeline

Personnel / album chart

Discography

Studio albums

• In the Court of the Crimson King (1969)
• In the Wake of Poseidon (1970)
• Lizard (1970)
• Islands (1971)
• Larks' Tongues in Aspic (1973)
• Starless and Bible Black (1974)
• Red (1974)
• Discipline (1981)
• Beat (1982)
• Three of a Perfect Pair (1984)
• THRAK (1995)
• The ConstruKction of Light (2000)
• The Power to Believe (2003)

Reissues

The band's studio catalogue up to 1984 was remastered for CD by Fripp and Tony Arnold and released under the label "definitive editions" in 1989. After ownership of the band's recordings reverted to Fripp and DGM in 1999, another newly remastered series (labeled 30th Anniversary Remasters) was released starting in 1999 and included all studio albums up to Thrak.

In 2008 Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree began remixing the catalogue for 5.1 surround sound (with Fripp's participation and approval), resulting in another series under the label 40th Anniversary Editions. These are CD/DVD-A editions which include the surround mix, often a new stereo mix based on the 5.1 treatment, extra material such as alternate studio takes or edits, and sometimes video when available. The first three titles were Red, In the Court of the Crimson King (released as close to the exact 40th anniversary of its original release as possible) and Lizard. These were followed by In the Wake of Poseidon and Islands in October 2010, Starless and Bible Black and Discipline in October 2011, Larks' Tongues in Aspic in 2012,^[108] the live album USA in late 2013, and Beat scheduled for early 2015.

Further reissues in the works include Three of a Perfect Pair^[109] and Thrak with engineering by Jakko Jakszyk.^[110]

See also

• King Crimson – Wikipedia book

References

• Buckley, Peter (2003). The Rough Guide to Rock. London: Rough Guides. ISBN 1-85828-201-2. 

Notes

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to King Crimson.

• Discipline Global Mobile Live
• Crimson Jazz Trio
• Elephant Talk
• Discography
• King Crimson and The Marquee Club
• ProjeKction
• LinkedIn Group King Crimson
• King Crimson discography at Discogs