THE EQUATORIAL STARS

The Equatorial Stars is impressionistic, often somber, and intriguing. Fripp's guitar playing blends perfectly with Eno's ambient music style. This collection of five tracks has a deliberate evolutionary format. In the beginning, it relates the loneliness of the stars and near emptiness of space and wraps up with industrial sounds that hint at some kind of unnatural activity. Eno enthusiasts will find this a treat; there is no beautifully mad guitar work anywhere, as one might expect from Fripp. All in all, it's a fine offering of electronic music.

"Meissa" begins by reminding one of the radio noise produced by the planets Jupiter and Saturn; this theme persists throughout, with mournful and ponderous guitar lines. There are several synthesizer and guitar loops that meander, and are layered over each other. The overall impression is one of the incredible remoteness of the stars; distant, yet fiery points of light. "Lyra" picks up where Meissa left off. The one change is an emerging sense of expectation in the steady background tone. "Tarazed" is slightly more aggressive with hints of machines droning softly, revealing signs of organized activity. Each track increases the pace in an "only just" perceptible way, becoming more and more complex. "Lupus" begins with an impression of a heartbeat and swirling sonic loops with filtering that leaves the impression of sounds being treated with a vocoder. "Ankaa" has an ominous background theme; however, Fripp's guitar adds color and voice to the growing din. "Altair" is more fully alive, with a rhythm line and background that grows in sonic pressure. The percussion evokes the impression of the emergence of "intelligence" in some distant star system. Fripp's part is tantamount to a simple rhythm guitar loop punctuated with occasional quite soaring; the synthesizers dominate and carry the lead theme nicely. "Terebellum" is subtly industrial.