THAT WHICH PASSES - 1995 SOUNDSCAPES, LIVE VOL. 3

Robert Fripp's discography on soundscapes performances is enormous. Just a look on main catalogues and several references comes to show how much improvisatorial material he has achieved (especially in recent times). That symbolically denotes nothing else than his great understanding towards the concept and, more importantly, towards this concept's powerful essence (cause doing much, but weak is so much easier that achieving so much, of such staggering quality) and his immense power to comprehend an entire palette of nuances and of themes within the same concept, one that can deceive through similarity, yet one that reflects one moment, one themes, one shadow of imagination. Out of the entire discographic set that Robert Fripp provides, the ones denoted as grand volumes, as the peak of the style and as the fulminant performance are undoubtedly essential. For they go in expressing the best possible way for a listener to enter the musical universe and to exit with knowledge, with pleasure, with the complete sense of soundscapism. We are right now at the fourth expression, That Which Passes, that goes into another brilliant view, into another stable point of quality and into another state of splendid artifacts and concrete music. I find myself once more in the position of being unable to qualitatively make differences, as this one deserves the same credit as the ones before and as many of the ones to come (out of the past albums, I was indulgent perhaps only with 1999). This release will make a general impression of solid movement and of thrilling sensations.

(off-subject) As the references mention: All the recordings are taken from live soundscape performances in 1995, from two venues - The Goethe Institute of Buenos Aires during the week beginning on the evening of Monday 3rd. April and continuing through to Sunday 9th. April, 1995, and Washington Square Church on Friday 8th. and Saturday 9th. September 1995.

There was a range of difficult to apprehend moments that sort of describe the other two 1995 volumes (since this one is vol.3), a progression into the unknown space and the unrevealed essence. Well, this character is mainly a featured changed in That Which Passes, through the effect that the barriers are shattering and the ways and modes are open. The experience is illuminating, intensive in its form, shockwave in its manner, splendor in its impulse. Very open and very direct the methods, the expression and the impressions are derived from simple feelings and even more simple interpretations. The album can impress through a range of emotions and of musical, artistically effects. Some moments are acute generic havocs, while some go into a lament of fluid, condescend, fascinating, silent waves. Some are harsh and ravaging, while some tranquil and tendentious in the resisting power. Robert Fripp is a stickler for adhesion. The music treats the subject and the speech.

In a saddening, pessimist, disturbed resonance, the music's tone is of low heights that act grand. A sorrow impression persists, a ghostly movement is imagined, a slumber shadow presents itself in a voiled portrait. The world of which the music belongs is one of dark colors, of immobility, of auditive protuberances. A perspective into darkness. A perspective into darkness' light. The matter and the knowledge are once more conserved. The emotional pulse is one still, but of deadly spark. The journey is one hallucinating and of complete sensorial panic. Effects gather voices, echoes, screams and shallow whispers, arranging them in an orchestral dissonant diffusion and in a striking flame. The story seems never-ending. The view seems eternally fallen. The name, the list, the essence embrace the constant message of fading, of becoming immaterial, of sending the spirit out of the realistic tapes and records. Silence comes as a blessing. The repaus is after the coma-like surround that constantly invigorates itself and draws more themes, more moments, more effective and decreptive scales. That Which Passes is one of the most adequate scape treating the music's valences (hidden or to be deciphered) and leaving the background of details or of quality into a suspended manner or an already achieved one (saying that the evolution of the volumes draws the conclusion of a perfectioned style, therefore needing less the attention of accuracy, more the focus on the fragile dynamics of the melody).

Looks wonderful and very interesting. Refreshing taste of soundscapes and this accentuation over the composition will denote many things into the coming future. For now, this is an outstanding manifest, ending a year that privileges quality and performance, ending a triple-powered release and sensing the passion of the style and the extensions of the message.like few do. Recommended, as always and as all are.

"The surreal touch of the expressions, compiled with distinction, is a test of thorough confidence in the relation with one's soul and attention, and are depths gained, reaching far in effects and in implementations of inner voice and mutual feeling."