Chill Out with Robert Fripp and His New Ambient Series ‘Music for Quiet Moments’ — Here’s ‘Pastorale’ (Listen)

Robert Fripp, the leader of prog-rock/experimental ensemble King Crimson, has found plenty of ways to keep busy during COVID-19 quarantine (such as buzzing around his backyard dressed as a bee with wife Toyah Wilcox), has premiered a new Music for Quiet Moments series with an ambient recording titled “Pastorale,” recorded in June 2007:

As announced officially on Wednesday, this will be a series of soundscape recordings from Fripp, premiered every Friday on all streaming platforms (YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music and so on).

Via the Crimson website:

Hopefully something that will nourish us, and help us through these Uncertain Times. I have certainly enjoyed the peace that comes with editing and mastering them.

Turning a seeming disadvantage to our advantage, a year at home without touring offers the chance to listen for the first time in many cases to existing live recordings. And there are treasures to be found!

David Singleton

This sounds like it will be pretty interesting, so stay tuned!

And some words from Fripp:

Music For Quiet Moments…

I

A Quiet Moment is how we experience a moment: the moment which is here, now and available.

Quiet moments are when we put time aside to be quiet;
and also where we find them.
Sometimes quiet moments find us.

Some places have an indwelling spirit, where quiet is a feature of the space:
perhaps natural features in the landscape;
perhaps intentionally created, as in a garden;
perhaps where a spirit of place has come into being over time, as in an English country churchyard.

Quiet may be experienced with sound, and also through sound;
in a place we hold to be sacred, maybe on a crowded subway train hurtling towards Piccadilly or Times Square.

A Quiet Moment is more to do with how we experience time than how we experience sound.

A Quiet Moment prepares the space where Silence may enter.

Silence is timeless.

II

My own quiet moments, over fifty-one years of being a touring player, have been mostly in public places where, increasingly, a layer of noise has intentionally overlaid and saturated the sonic environment.

III

Quiet Moments of my musical life, expressed in Soundscapes, are deeply personal; yet utterly impersonal: they address the concerns we share within our common humanity.   

Paradoxically, they have mostly taken place in public contexts inimical and unsupportive of quiet.

Some of these Soundscapes are inward-looking, reflective.
Some move outwards, with affirmation.
Some go nowhere, simply being where they are.

Robert Fripp
Tuesday 28^th. April, 2020;
Bredonborough, Middle England.