Customer Reviews

At the End of Time: Churchscapes Live in England

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

King Crimson's Robert Fripp continues his ongoing guitar Soundscape explorations with his latest release "At The End Of Time". In 2006, Fripp took some time out to perform in several churches in different territories including the UK and Estonia. It's these gigs that form the basis of this album.
Overall, the music is extremely peaceful and tranquil - the perfect type of music for relaxation. Fripp's layered Midi-guitar loops along with his fluid standard guitar leads are nothing short of astonishing. Every track on this disc is a standout and its continuous seamless arrangement give the impression of a long 74-minute symphony in 10 movements. The bell sounds used in the three different versions of "Evensong" are especially beautiful.
"At The End Of Time" is a definite must for the avid Robert Fripp fan and is one of his most beautiful albums ever made. This is highly recommended.
Also, the complete live performances from which the music on this CD was taken from can be heard and downloaded in their entirety from Robert Fripp's website. I definitely recommend the downloads in addition to this CD.

The funny thing about ambient, new age and any type of soundscape music is that some of the best complimentary remarks one can make would sound like insults were one speaking of any other genre. "This sounds like background music." "I can't remember which song is which " and "This music makes me sleep." I can apply all these comments to Fripp's soundscape albums. But I love them because they are beautiful. I love that they lack cloying melodies and lyrics that would distract as I read or work on my pc, and when I allow the cd to lull me to sleep, it is an unbelievably soothing and restful and peaceful doze into which I drift.



i am glad that I found music that fulfills a specific purpose -- and that the purpose is to achieve restful, peace of body and mind... wow, that's a tremendous thing.

I consider some of Eno's and most of Budd's work in this genre to be the 5 star stuff.

The perfect CD to relax and unwind to. I like all of Robert Fripp's Soundscapes. However, this "Churchscapes" is very appropriately titled as it has a very spirtual overtone and I find it very peaceful and theraputic. I think it would have been a wonderful experience to hear this live in the settings it was recorded.

I wound up playing this through about three times on the first listen and I have played again since then (all in one day). I highly recommend it and I believe it is a great addition to anyone who appreciates Fripps solo soundscapes.

I've heard about 6 or 7 Frippertronic albums dating back to Let the Power Fall. This is the best. The music is very smooth and rich, something that can not always be said for this style of music. The different churches that the tracks are recorded at also seem to add their own ambience.
This CD is not for everyone, but if you like Frippertronics, this is a good addition to your library.

Delicately woven synth loops with a devotional hue. Very moving and gracious. I listen to this very often. Great ambient sound textures that bring a soothing relief from a world going bad.

Fripp's "soundscapes" are always utterly gorgeous, ravishing musical atmospheres that ebb and flow and shimmer with otherworldly beauty. So it is highly fitting that he undertook a tour of churches in England and Estonia with his highly spiritual and ecstatic improvised music. As he mentions in the booklet notes, one pastor told him that there have been many different musical performances in his church but Fripp's soundscapes were by far the most appropriate.
The day I got this CD I listened to it three times. That's something I hardly ever do within a MONTH of purchasing other CD's.

I am reminded of Brian Eno's definition of ambient music: one can just allow it to be in the background, but if one pays attention they are rewarded. However this is beyond the usual ambient fare and really unclassifiable. No expectations - that is how one should listen to this music.

My wife hates this CD. She says it has no melodies, no beats, no direction. I have to play it when she's not in the room. But I love it. The textures continually evolve and surprise. It sounds fresh to me every time I listen to it. It has a spiritual quality about it that is savory, not sweet. I have been following Fripp for many years, through many incarnations. This feels like a culmination - something that will only grow in importance with time - like Coltrane's "A Love Supreme."

Let's start with making a distinction: there is a great volume of music that we can work to comprehend, and there is a more elusive body within the body of music that it is best to apprehend. The first, of course, is a conscious understanding; the second, one of emotional understanding more appropriate, perhaps, to sacred works. That Churchscapes fits into the broad category of sacred music is not a point of contention. By performing in the churches of his homeland Fripp aligns with the performance spaces of John Tavener; in Estonia, with the performance spaces of Arvo Pärt.

Consequently, the music of Churchscapes dutifully avoids the typically glossy, sunny, enthusiastic or merely derivative excrescences of the Jesus rock (no real chance it would not have, just wanted to use the phrase "the Jesus rock" in here somewhere) and smartly forgoes the current fad for doing whatever you like in the name of, rather than doing what the so-called Namer asks of you. Latent in much of the soundscapes work - in particular That Which Passes and Love Cannot Bear - Fripp seems to be owning up here that much of the yearning, sorrow and doubt flowing from his fingers belongs to the sacred, or at least his sense of it.

Unfortunately, when it comes to the acoustics, Churchscapes does not sound very different than the Soundscapes. Comparing this recording with Pärt's Kanon Pokajanen recorded down the street at the Niguliste Church would lead the listener to think that the acoustics of the church -- while apparently considered in the performance -- were not employed in the recording. If true, it is an odd decision to exclude the acoustics since the soundscape amplification is typically so well-tuned to its environment and since such acoustics have traditionally played such a central role in Western sacred musics. But the fact that these venues are so far outside the popular music and rock streams does both Fripp and the music credit because, driven by the fantastical being of your choice or not, genuine sacred music has managed to set down a rigorous set of specs and traditions that define it perhaps more closely than many other Western forms.

To varying degrees the ten interrelated tracks take the open loop into account, and there is surely no more appropriate or fatalistic system. Fripp is able to voice a number of instruments and there's less a sense of guitar-only here than in other soundscapes. He even seems to quote fragments of "Starless" at one point, then proceeds with the deconstruction of what is one of his purest and most melodic passages into a shimmering intersection of the formed and formless. Other instances reveal a welcome, gapped openness, as plectrum bell-like events coalesce into pattern and are allowed the long declines of Eventide's 80+ second delay lines into absolute and undisturbed silence, making for a fitting resolution to the carefully arc'd complexities that precede. Surely different from the Soundscapes series, but in some ways not quite different enough.

not enough experimentation or musical variety here . I love King Crimson ( which is Robert Fripp , after all ) but too much of Mr Fripp's solo stuff is a bit safe . This is gentle , melodic and drifting music , with almost no Fripp-style lead guitar .