At the top of this year, iconic guitarist Robert Fripp launched a new website called DGM Live. It’s an extension of the King Crimson leader’s independent label Discipline Global Mobile, and offers fans a chance to delve into his vast archives of unheard live and improvised recordings, both with King Crimson, as well as his work as a solo artist and collaborator.
One of the first recordings to make its way on the site was a gorgeous set that took place right here in Philadelphia. Recorded at the University of Pennsylvania’s Houston Hall on February 20, 1981, this was peak Frippertronics era, and was part of a benefit concert to raise for WXPN.
As then-music director Kimberley Haas recalls on the DGM Live website, she hosted Fripp’s project The League of Gentlemen in studio in 1980, and they hit it off. “He offered to play a benefit concert for the station and gave me his address and phone number,” Haas says. “I kept it for a year or two, and finally gave him a call, probably in January of 1981. He told me he was going to be in the U.S. in February and would play 3 shows: 2 to benefit WXPN and the third to benefit either the Claymont Society for Continuous Education, or Claymont Court specifically. … Robert performed three shows over the two days: one in the evening of Friday, February 20th and then two on the following day, one in the afternoon and another in the evening. All were in the auditorium of Houston Hall, the student union building at the University of Pennsylvania.”
Over on DGM Live, you can stream meditative snippets of the performance, purchase a download, or create an account to stream this historic show on demand. WXPN’s own Chuck Van Zyl was in attendance, and shares these recollections of the concert over email: “I have since attended a few more solo ‘Frippertronics’ soundscape shows, but this one that Kimberly arranged (in a pre-digital era) remains the most remarkable – especially so for the unique effect of the two reel-to-reel tape machines on-stage used to build the layered wash of guitar tones. While the breathing chords cycled low, Fripp held forth with gorgeous liquid lead lines above. Magical.”
This tracks with a conversation Fripp had with legendary Clash guitarist about this gig in the June 1981 edition of Musician Magazine, quoted on the site:
Fripp: …A funny thing happened in Philadelphia a few weeks ago during my Frippertronics tour. I was listening and I heard the next note I had to play. And I played it. Then I heard the next note, and I played that one. I’d been waiting 23 years for that to happen..
Strummer: That’s real music
Fripp:…and it was the first time it ever happened to me. And I started to cry while I was playing…
Strummer: That’s it. To know where one has to go…
Fripp: …and it’s funny, but I had to trust it. I heard the next note, and I thought well, I’ll try it. Then I heard the next one and thought well, this is shit, but I thought I should trust it. So I did. And it’s a question of trusting the music to play itself.
Explore more of Fripp’s 1981 Houston Hall recordings here; for additional regional-specific content on the site, check out their new vinyl series of concert recordings from King Crimson’s 1972 Earthbound tour, kicking off with a show at the Armoury in Wilmington, Delaware.