“They Were Being Very GENEROUS”
Robert Fripp on Porcupine Tree, and Wilson’s iconic remixes.
“FIRST OF ALL, Steven was in No-Man with Tim Bowness. I was approached as a session guitarist to play on their album [1994’s Flowermouth]. We recorded it in Steven’s parents’ front room, near Bourne End. They wanted me to sound like the guitar solo on Sailor’s Tale from King Crimson’s Islands.
But it was a very good, very fun session. And I was very happy and very pleased to be working with a younger generation of players.
I supported Porcupine Tree with
[Fripp’s recurring instrumental project] Soundscapes on both an American tour and an English tour. I think they were being very generous and supportive of an older musician, because basically Soundscapes weren’t at all popular. With Porcupine Tree’s audiences, there was a little more latitude. Instead of active booing, most of the audience would simply go to the bar.
Whenever a new technological format came forward, I would look to reposition King Crimson within it. When Steven expressed an interest in bringing the catalogue up to date… well, he was the man that actually had the chops to do it, and the commitment. He knew the music, and he knew the new technology way beyond someone of an older generation.
Steven’s approach when engaging with the catalogue is to reproduce it exactly as per the original but using current technology. My approach is slightly different in that not all the original moves, for example, in the mix, were actually what might have been intended. So, I would be more available to [change the originals] than Steven would. And in some cases, he simply overrode me. He said, ‘No. This is the classic.’
Steven gets out of the way of the music he’s mixing. This is not Steven Wilson’s Mix Of King Crimson. This is King Crimson mixed by Steven Wilson. This is so rare, to deal with someone who gets themselves out of the way.”