Robert Fripp

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Robert Fripp (born 16 May 1946) is an English musician, singer, and record producer best known for his role as the guitarist, founder, and longest-serving member of the progressive rock band King Crimson.

He has also worked as a session musician and consultant, including with David Bowie, Blondie, Brian Eno, and David Sylvian.

He has also contributed to the Windows Vista operating system's sounds.

His discography includes contributions to more than 700 official announcements. After being ranked by David Fricke who is ranked 42nd on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time in 2011, he ranks No. 62nd on the list.

He currently ranks 47th among Gibson's Top 50 guitarists of all time, ties with Andrés Segovia.

His compositions are often influenced by classical and folk traditions.

Frippertronics, "soundscapes," and new standard tuning are among his inventions.

Early life

Robert Fripp was born in Wimborne Minster, Dorset, England, and was the second child of a working-class family. Edith (née Greene) was born in 1914-1953 and died in a Welsh mining family. Arthur Henry Fripp (1910-1985), who worked at the Bournemouth Records Office, encouraged her father, Arthur Henry Fripp (1910-1985), to start a business as an estate agent. Fripp received a guitar for Christmas from his parents in 1957, and recalled, "I knew this was going to be my life" right away. He took guitar lessons from Kathleen Gartell and Don Strike at age 11, Elvis Presley's guitarist Scotty Moore inspired Fripp to play guitar, as well as modern jazz at 15. During this period, he cited jazz players Charlie Parker and Charles Mingus as his musical influences.

The fifteen-year-old Fripp's first band, The Ravens, also featured Gordon Haskell on bass, in 1961. Fripp concentrated on his O-level studies and joined his father's company as a junior negotiator after splitting in the following year. At this point, he intends to investigate estate planning and possibly take over his father's company. Fripp, on the other hand, decided to become a professional musician at the age of seventeen. He performed in the Chewton Glen Hotel of New Milton, then played in the rock and roll band The League of Gentlemen, which featured two former Ravens members.

Fripp left the company in 1965 to attend Bournemouth College, where he studied economics, economic history, and political history for his A-levels. Fripp went to the Duke Ellington Orchestra in February 1965, an event that moved him greatly. He spent three years in Bournemouth's Majestic Dance Orchestra (replacing future) Andy Summers, a police guitarist who had gone off to London with Zoot Money, later spent three years playing light jazz. It was during this time that he met musicians with whom he would collaborate with in his future: John Wetton, Richard Palmer-James, and Greg Lake. Fripp stayed tuned to Radio Luxemburg where he heard the final moments of "A Day in the Life" at age 21. After being "galvanized" by the event, he continued to listen to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Béla Bartók's string quartets, Anton Dvok's New World Symphony, Jimi Hendrix's Are You Experienced, and John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers are among Pepper's highlights from his visit to Lonely Hearts Club Band, John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers' Lonely Hearts Club Band, Are You Experienced and John Mayall & the Blues Fripp would recall that "although all the dialects are different, the voice was the same." I knew I couldn't say no."

Personal life

Toyah Willcox, a Fripp musician and actress, married in Poole, Dorset, England, on May 16, 1986. They lived at and renovated Reddish House, Cecil Beaton's former home, in the village of Broad Chalke, Wiltshire, from December 1987 to July 1999.

Fripp lived at Thornhill Cottage in Holt, Dorset, 1970-1980), and Fernhill House in Witchampton (1980-1987). The couple lived at Evershot Old Mansion (1999-2001), shortly after the Reddish House. They then moved to Pershore, Worcestershire, where they now reside. The couple have no children and have arranged their will so as to leave their entire fortune to the establishment of a musical education trust for children.

Fripp is a patron of the Seattle Circle Guitar School in the United States and the Penzance, England, and the Shallal Dance Theatre. He has also appeared at conferences as a motivational speaker, often at those with his sister Patricia, who is a keynote speaker and speech coach.

Alfie Fripp, the last of the "39ers," was shot down by the Luftwaffe and then held in 12 separate POW camps during World War II.

Fripp is a pescetarian.

Fripp and Willcox made several short, amusing videos on YouTube during the COVID-19 lockdowns, the majority of which were titled Toyah and Robert's Sunday Lunch. Their reports about these covers, according to rock and metal news website MetalSucks, were extremely popular; they even covered Metallica's "Enter Sandman" in the site's 6th-most popular article of the year.

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Career

Fripp responded to an advertisement published by Bournemouth-born brothers Peter and Michael Giles, who wanted to work with a singing organist in 1967. Although Fripp was not what they expected, his audition with them was a hit, and the trio became Giles, Giles, and Fripp. In 1968, Giles, Giles, and Fripp's sole studio album, The Cheerful Insanity, was released. Despite the fact that two more members, singer Judy Dyble (formerly with Fairport Convention and later, Trader Horne) and multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald, were outgrowing Peter Giles' eccentric pop style (preferring the more experimental works being written by McDonald), and the band split up in 1968.

Fripp, McDonald, and Michael Giles formed the first team of King Crimson in mid-1968, recruiting Greg Lake, a former Bournemouth College student, and McDonald's writing partner Peter Sinfield as the lead singer and bass player. King Crimson's debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King, was released in late 1969 to a great deal: it is regarded as one of the most influential albums in modern rock history. The band had been praised for fame, but the band (due to increasing musical inconsistencies between Fripp and Giles and McDonald on the other) had to cancel at the start of the band's first American tour in 1969. A dissenting Fripp offered to leave the group if it would have saved King Crimson; but, Giles and McDonald had already decided that the band's music was "more Fripp's than theirs" and that leaving the group would be better.

Greg Lake left Emerson, Lake, and Palmer on his second album In the Wake of Poseidon, leaving Fripp and Sinfield as the only remaining founding members. They released two more albums (Lizard and Islands) as the only constants in a constantly evolving King Crimson line. In addition to a roster of guest stars from Keith Tippett's band, Brotherhood of Breath and Centipede, it featured Gordon Haskell, saxophonist/flute player Mel Collins, drummer Andy McCulloch, and future Bad Company bass player Boz Burrell. Fripp was listed as the sole composer of the band's music during this period, but the band's sound evolved into jazz rock and free jazz, while simultaneously taking inspiration from Sinfield's esoteric lyrical and mythological theories.

Fripp dismissed Sinfield and took over de facto control of King Crimson in 1971 (although he has never officially denied the position, referring to his position as "quality control" or "a sort of glue"). Fripp will be the band's sole constant member from this point forward, and his compositional and conceptual concepts will dominate the band's evolution, which in turn would be characterized by his compositional and conceptual concepts, as well as Béla Bartók's music). King Crimson released three more albums of innovative and increasingly experimental rock, beginning with Larks' Tongues in Aspic, progressing with Starless and Bible Black, and finally to the benchmark avant-power trio album Red, led by avant-garde percussionist Jamie Muir, violinist David Cross, singer John Wetton, and former Yes drummer Bill Bruford. Fripp formal disbanded the company in 1974, but it was only the first in a line of long hiatuses and further transitions that eventually ended up being the first in a line of long hiatuses and dramatic shifts.

During King Crimson's less active days, Fripp pursued side projects. He worked with Keith Tippett (and others who appeared on King Crimson records) on projects that deviates from rock music, including playing with and creating Centipede's Septober Energy in 1971 and Ovary Lodge in 1973. He appeared on Van der Graaf Generator in the 1970s, Who Am the Only One, and on Pawn Hearts in 1971. In 1972, Matching Mole's Matching Mole's Little Red Book was released. He collaborated on a spoken-word album with a woman he described as "a witch," but the Cosmic Children of Rock was never officially announced prior to its establishment.

In 1972, Brian Eno, Fripp, released (No Pussyfooting) and Evening Star in 1974. These musicians experimented with a number of avant-garde musical styles that were yet to be popular. Fripp used a tape delay device on "The Heavenly Music Corporation" from No Pussyfooting, which was the first time. The procedure went on to play a central role in Fripp's later work, and it was dubbed "Frippertronics" in honor of his title.

Fripp performed the guitar solo on "Baby's on Fire" in 1973, perhaps the best-known track on Eno's solo debut Here Come the Warm Jets. Fripp and Brian Eno appeared live in Europe in 1975, and Fripp, Jim Turner, contributed guitar solos to Eno's landmark album Another Green World.

Fripp began what was supposed to be a sabbatical from his time in 1975, during which he developed an interest in Gurdjief's teachings via J. G. Bennett (studies that would later be influential in his work with Guitar Craft). On Peter Gabriel's first self-titled album in 1976, he returned to musical duties as a studio guitarist. Fripp went on tour with Gabriel to promote the album, but stayed out of sight (either in the wings or behind a curtain) and used the pseudonym "Dusty Rhodes."

In 1978, Gabriel performed and appeared on his second album. "Robert is particularly good at keeping it fresh, and I like that a lot," Gabriel expressed. "I was really interested in Robert's experimental side, and it matched exactly to what I wanted to do on this second record." Later in the series, he appears on 'Exposure.' Being the majority responsible for the building of this piece, he gives it the green light. He also plays classical guitar here and there. "I love him a lot because he is one of the few ones to achieve both discipline and madness with so much talent."

Fripp received a phone call from Eno, who was working on David Bowie's album "Heroes," in 1977. Fripp and Eno had collaborated on an album titled Evening Star that was released in 1975. Tensions that will influence the Bowie project two years later, particularly the second side, are on this album, particularly the 'An Index of Metals.' Fripp's appearance on Heroes began a line of collaborations with other musicians. Fripp joined Daryl Hall on Sacred Songs shortly after.

Fripp began working on solo projects during this period, including poet/lyricist Joanna Walton and many other musicians, including Eno, Gabriel and Hall, as well as Peter Hammill, Jerry Marotta, Tony Levin, and Terre Roche. Exposure, his first solo album, was released in 1979, and the Frippertronics tour followed in the same year.

Fripp performed on albums and live shows by Blondie (Parallel Lines) and Talking Heads (Fear of Music), as well as producing The Roches' first and third albums, which featured several of Fripp's characteristic guitar solos. On Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980), David Bowie's second set of creative sessions (1980), and Peter Gabriel's third solo album known as Melt preceded him. Blondie, Fripp appeared on stage at Hammersmith Odeon on January 12, 1980, performing in the band's cover version of Bowie's "Heroes" from Blondie. This recording appeared on Atomic's 12" single the same year and later became a bonus track on Blondie's album Eat to the Beat's CD pressings.

Fripp's collaboration with bassist Busta Jones, drummer Paul Duskin, and vocalist David Byrne produced God Save the Queen/Under Heavy Manners in the following year. He assembled "a second-division touring new wave instrumental dance band" under the name League of Gentlemen, with bassist Sara Lee, keyboardist Barry Andrews, and drummer Johnny Elichaoff (credited as "Johnny Too Bad"). Kevin Wilkinson later replaced Elichaoff, who was then named after him. The LOG was in existence for the remainder of 1980.

Elan Sicroff, a classical pianist, produced the album Journey to Inaccessible Places in 1985, which was published on Editions E.G. Label.

Fripp's new King Crimson lineup was formed in 1981, reuniting Fripp with drummer Bill Bruford and a new Peter Gabriel touring band) and Adrian Belew, a singer and guitarist who had previously performed with Bowie, Talking Heads, and Frank Zappa. Despite being conceptualized under the name Discipline, Fripp was surprised that King Crimson was more appropriate: for Fripp, King Crimson had always been "a way of doing things" rather than a select group of musicians, and the new group believed that their music reflected this approach. With Belew as the main songwriter (complementing Fripp as the main instrumental composer), the band took on a new look, including video-punk influences from post-punk to go-goo, as well as textured experiments with guitar synthesizers. This new King Crimson began in 1984 and released three albums (Discipline, Beat, Three of a Perfect Pair).

During this time Fripp's time with his longtime buddy Andy Summers of The Police made two records. All the instruments were used on I Advance Masked, Fripp, and Summers. Bewitched was ruled by Summers, who produced the album and collaborated with other artists in comparison to Fripp.

Fripp, a 1982 Fripp, wrote and performed guitar on Keep on Doing by the Roches. Fripp's distinctive guitar style and sound that characterized his period's music are included alongside the sisters' songs and harmony in his previous guesting on David Bowie's Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), as well as Pete Townshend and Chuck Hammer on guitar synthesizer.

In 1984, Fripp was offered a teaching job at the American Society for Continuous Education (ASCE) in Claymont Court, West Virginia. He had been involved with the ASCE since 1978, eventually serving on the board of directors, and had long considered teaching guitar. Guitar Craft began in 1985, with the exception of a performance group, "The League of Crafty Guitarists," which has released several albums. He began to collaborate with his wife, Toyah Willcox, in 1986. The California Guitar Trio members are former members of The League of Crafty Guitarists and have performed with King Crimson. Fripp is a supporter of the Guitar Circle of Europe, which was established in 2007 and the Seattle Circle Guitar School, which was established in 2010.

On its 25th anniversary in 2010, Fripp suggested that Guitar Craft cease to exist in February 2009.

The Guitar Circle, a collection of writings about Guitar Craft, was published on September 1st 2022 by Fripp.

Fripp went back to recording solo in 1994, using an advanced version of the Frippertronics method that makes loops out of digital technology rather than analogue tapes. Fripp has released a number of albums under his moniker, including 1999, Radiophonics, A Blessing of Tears, That Which Passes, November Suite, The Gates of Paradise, Love Cannot Bear, and At the End of Time. Also, many download-only live recordings have been released. (The sampler Pie Jesu is made from a mixture of Blessing of Tears and The Gates of Paradise).

Fripp's collaborations with David Sylvian include some of his best guitar playing. Fripp contributed to Sylvian's "Steel Cathedrals" from his Alchemy: An Index of Possibilities album of 1985. Then Fripp appeared on numerous tracks from Sylvian's introduction, Gone to Earth, in 1986.

Fripp had invited Sylvian to join a re-formed King Crimson as a vocalist in late 1991. Sylvian turned down the invitation but suggested a potential cooperation between the two parties that would eventually include a tour of Japan and Italy in the spring of 1992.

Fripp released an album with the title Sunday All Over The World, which also included his wife Toyah Willcox, former League of Crafty Guitarists member Trey Gunn, Chapman Sticks player Trey Gunn, and drummer Paul Beavis. Fripp Fripp Fripp is the former name of this band, and they appeared as such in 1988. They were renamed to SAOTW and then toured as SAOTW in 1989.

The first Day of Sylvian and Fripp, 1993, was the beginning of Sylvian and Fripp's joint venture The First Day. Trey Gunn, a soon-to-bear King Crimson member, and Jerry Marotta (who, like Sylvian, is almost a member of King Crimson) were among the other contributors on Chapman Stick and Jerry Marotta (who, like Sylvian, is a drummer who came close to becoming a member of King Crimson) on drums. When the group toured to support the CD, future King Crimson member Pat Mastelotto took over the drumming position. Damage, as well as the joint venture Redemption – Approaching Silence, which featured Sylvian's ambient sound sculptures, was released in 1994 (Approaching Silence), with Fripp accompanying him in reading his own text (Redemption).

Fripp contributed guitar/soundscapes to Lifeforms (1994) by the Orb, as well as FFWD, a joint venture with the latter's members. In addition, Fripp worked with Brian Eno co-writing and playing guitar on two tracks for a CD-ROM project titled Headcandy by Chris Juul and Doug Jipson in 1994. On completion, Eno thought the film's aesthetics (video feedback effects) were extremely disappointing, and regretted their participation. Fripp contributed to albums by No-Man and the Beloved (1994's Flowermouth and 1996's X, respectively), during this period. He also played guitar on two albums by the UK band Iona: Beyond These Shores (1993), and 1996's Journey into the Morn.

Fripp revived King Crimson's 1981 line-up for its fifth year, including Trey Gunn and drummer Pat Mastelotto in a group known as the "double trio" (the lineup included two guitars, two bassists, and two drummers). In 1994, the VROOOM EP was released, and 1995, the Thrak album was released.

Though the double-trio King Crimson's musically (and economically) lucrative, it was difficult to maintain long-term. The band "fraKctalized" into five experimental instrumental subgroups known as ProKcts from 1997 to 1999. By 1998, Bruford had departed the band completely: Fripp, Belew, Gunn, and Mastelotto were reunited as a four-piece King Crimson (minus Levin, who was preoccupied with session duties). Two studio albums, the construKction of light in 2000 and The Power to Believe in 2003, which took a more commercial, heavily electronic approach, were included in this line. Gunn left at the end of 2003.

Although Levin returned to the band immediately after, another hiatus ensued until King Crimson's second drummer, Gavin Harrison of Porcupine Tree, was added to the lineup in 2007. No new original work was found, and Fripp announced that King Crimson was on another indefinite hiatus in 2010.

Fripp formed the guitar trio G3 in 2004 and spent time with Joe Satriani and Steve Vai. He also worked at Microsoft's studios to record the startup sound for Windows Vista. Fripp developed the soundscape and composed the melody, while Tucker Martine created the beat and Microsoft's own Stvee Ball added the harmonies and created the final arrangement.

Fripp performed in late 2005 and early 2006 with guitarist Bill Rieflin and guitarist Fred Chalenor (acoustic bass), Matt Chamberlain (drums), and Hector Zazou (electronics). In May 2006, this group of musicians toured the west coast of America.

Fripp contributed his composition "At The End of Time" to the Artists for Charity album Guitarists 4 the Kids, a Slang Productions company, to support World Vision Canada in assisting underprivileged children. Fripp will perform several solo concerts of soundscapes in intimate venues in churches around England and Estonia throughout 2006. ProKct Six (Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew) appeared at select venues on the east coast of the United States in October 2006, the first for Porchute Tree. Fripp also contributed soundscapes to two songs for Porch Tree's Fear of a Blank Planet, "Way Out of Here" and "Nil Recurring," the second of which was released in September 2007 as part of the Nil Recurring EP. Fripp also appeared on several tours from 2006 to 2009.

Fripp collaborated with Theo Travis on an album of guitar and flute-or-saxophone duets in 2008, and the pair appeared in England for a brief period (repeating the Follow album's collaboration in 2012). Fripp appeared on two tracks on Jaksyk's album The Bruised Romantic Glee Club in 2009, which also included his wife Toyah Willcox, Bill Rieflin, and Chris Wong. Fripp contributed a guitar solo to an extended version of the Grinderman's 'Heathen Child' single in 2010, which was released as a B-side on the 'Super Heathen Child' single.

Leviathan, the ambient/electronica album, was released in 2021. In collaboration with British EDM Duo The Grid, Fripp produced it and performed guitar.

On the Panegyric label, Jakko Jakszyk, Robert Fripp, and Mel Collins released A Scarcity of Miracles: A King Crimson Promson Promson Prosk. Tony Levin and Gavin Harrison's contributions to the album fueled rumors that it was a dry run for a new King Crimson.

Fripp resigned from playing as a professional musician in an interview published in August 2012, citing long-running differences with Universal Music Group and saying that working within the music industry has become "a joyless exercise in futility." This retirement turned out to be short-lived, and it took as long as it took for UMG to find a deal.

King Crimson's return to action as a seven-piece unit with "four Englishmen and three Americans," Fripp announced in his online diary entry for October 6, 2013. Fripp, Levin, both Mastelotto and Harrison on drums, Mel Collins, a former band member, and Bill Rieflin as a third drummer. This version of the band appeared on tour in 2014 and 2015 with a setlist reworking and reconfiguring the band's 1960s and 1970s repertoire (more songs from A Scarcity of Miracles and new compositions). Ex Lemon Trees/Beady Eye drummer Jeremy Stacey will act as a substitute for Rieflin on that year's tour, although the former was on sabbatical, and the latter was expected to substitute for him on a definite basis in early 2016. King Crimson has been touring as a permanent member of Stacey's drums and keyboards, as well as a "fair dusting" on keyboards and keyboards. On the 2018 tours, Rieflin last appeared with Crimson; he died on March 24, 2020.

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