„Everything Wounded Will Flow“ – Robert Fripp speaks
26. März 2025
Let’s celebrate one year of Flowworker!
On this morning today, at the end of March 2025, I strolled through our early „flowflow“-posts. Once upon a time, a good year ago, „Manafonistas 2“ was installed, not possible without the support of a new webmaster in action, Nevzad K.! Instead of a little „flowflow“-jubilee party, or telling the true story behind the crash of „Manafonistas 1“, I chose one of my favourite posts of those „early days“, in fact one of my, well, 350 favourite posts ever. No clapping on my shoulder this is – I’m only one of two guys mumbling questions in a room full of strangers.
This thing came into being by total surprise. With some revealing thoughts, sidesteps & stories by the leader of the legendary league of gentlemen! Michael Frank contacted me asking for permission using our old interview with Robert Fripp from 1998 for this or that. We met him inside the big lounge of Hyatt, Cologne. The waterfall sounds like tape hiss, a deliberate scenario by the management to make „eavesdropping“ difficult.
When broadcasting excerpts of this talk later, after midnight at the radio, funny things happened. While the listener heard nothing for a minute or longer, I heard Robert‘s voice strangely doubled on my headphones, and I said to the woman in the control room: „Ich höre Überblendungen.“ And this was the first thing after quite a period of dead air that everybody could hear in that „live situation“.
Besides from that, I had forgotten most of the content of our 1998 conversation. Now, listening to it again in the first place, I was surprised by some nice passages of that interview, amongst them background stories on the creation of „No Pussyfooting“ by Fripp & Eno. And about the strategies of the record company to delay the original release. And that‘s only the beginning! Kudos to Michael Frank for sharing this buried treasure!
Putting the ancient interview a bit into context: many years later Discipline Global Mobile released what I would call my favourite boxset ever. EXPOSURES. 32 compact discs reflecting Robert‘s „solo journeys“ between 1977 and 1983. Still available for 114 Euros. I’ve had the idea for some time now that to make my last ever hour of „Klanghorizonte“ centered around this boxset and the long story I had written about it. If you‘re in the mood for Robert, give it thirty minutes of very slow reading and daydreaming time – HERE!
But, for now, lose yourself under an artificial waterfall!
2 Kommentare
Michael Engelbrecht
Jan from Pittsburgh, by the way, Michael Frank hat herrliche und auch humorvolle Erinnerungen an frühe Kraftwerkauftritte.
flowworker
Comment 1 ist ein alter Kommentar … auch war damals noch Flattersatz im Spiel …