Robert Fripp (born 16 May 1946) is an English guitarist, composer and record producer. He was ranked 42nd on Rolling Stone magazine’s 2003 list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” and #47 on Gibson.com’s “Top 50 Guitarists of All Time”. Among rock guitarists, Fripp is a master of crosspicking, a technique often associated with the banjo. His compositions often feature unusual time signatures, which have been influenced by classical and folk traditions. His innovations have included Frippertronics following collaboration with Brian Eno, soundscapes, and New Standard Tuning. As a guitarist for the progressive rock band King Crimson, Fripp has been the only member to have played in all of King Crimson’s lineups. As a studio musician, Fripp improvised the guitar solo to David Bowie’s Heroes and sounds for the Windows Vista operating system. His complete discography lists more than seven hundred releases over four decades. Fripp was born in Wimborne Minster, Dorset, England. His earliest professional work began in 1967, when he responded to an ad looking for a singing organist for a band being formed by bassist Peter Giles and drummer Michael Giles, despite being neither a singer nor an organist. Though unsuccessful as a live act, Giles, Giles and Fripp did manage to release two singles, as well as an album, The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp.Following the band’s break-up, Fripp, along with drummer Michael Giles, made plans for the formation of King Crimson in 1968, with Greg Lake, Peter Sinfield and Ian McDonald. During King Crimson’s less active periods, Fripp has pursued a number of side-projects. He worked with Keith Tippett (and others who appeared on King Crimson records) on projects far from rock music, producing Centipede’s Septober Energy in 1971 and Ovary Lodge in 1973. During this period he also worked with Van der Graaf Generator, playing on the 1970 album H to He, Who Am the Only One, and in 1971, on Pawn Hearts. He produced Matching Mole’s 2nd LP Matching Mole’s Little Red Record in 1972. Collaborating with Brian Eno, he recorded (No Pussyfooting) in 1972, and Evening Star in 1974. These two albums featured experimentation with several novel musical techniques, including a tape delay system utilising dual reel to reel Revox tape machines that would come to play a central role in Fripp’s later work. This system came to be known as “Frippertronics”. Also in 1974, Fripp performed the blistering guitar solo on “Baby’s on Fire,” perhaps the best-known track on Eno’s debut solo album Here Come the Warm Jets. In 1975, Fripp and Eno played several live shows in Europe, and Fripp also contributed melodic and soaring guitar solos throughout Eno’s groundbreaking Another Green World album. Fripp spent some time away from the music industry in the later 1970s, during which he cultivated an interest in the teachings of Gurdjieff via J. G. Bennett (studies which would later be influential in his work with Guitar Craft). He returned to musical work as a studio guitarist on Peter Gabriel’s first self-titled album in 1976, released the following year. Fripp toured with Gabriel to support the album, but remained out of sight (either in the wings or behind a curtain) and used the pseudonym “Dusty Rhodes.” [5] He produced and played on Gabriel’s second album in 1978 (often called ‘Scratch’). In 1977, Fripp received a phone call from Eno, who was working on David Bowie’s album “Heroes”. Fripp agreed to play guitar for the album, a move that initiated a series of collaborations with other musicians. Fripp soon contributed his musical and production talents to Peter Gabriel’s second album, and collaborated with Daryl Hall on Sacred Songs. During this period, Fripp began working on solo material, with contributions from poet/lyricist Joanna Walton and several other musicians, including Eno, Gabriel, and Hall, as well as Peter Hammill, Jerry Marotta, Phil Collins, Tony Levin and Terre Roche. This material eventually became his first solo album, Exposure, released in 1979, followed by the Frippertronics tour in the same year. While living in New York, Fripp contributed to albums and live performances by Blondie (Parallel Lines) and Talking Heads (Fear of Music), and produced The Roches’ first album, which featured several of Fripp’s characteristic guitar solos. A second set of creative sessions with David Bowie produced distinctive guitar parts on Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980). Fripp’s collaboration with bassist Busta Jones, drummer Paul Duskin, and vocals by David Byrne (Byrne credited as Absalm el Habib) produced God Save the Queen/Under Heavy Manners in the following year. He simultaneously assembled what he called 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 Toobad (later replaced by Kevin Wilkinson). The LOG toured for the duration of 1980. In the early and mid 1990s Fripp contributed guitar/soundscapes to Lifeforms (1994) by The Future Sound of London and Cydonia (released 2001) by The Orb, as well as FFWD, a collaborative effort with the latter’s members. In addition, Fripp worked with Brian Eno co-writing and supplying guitar to two tracks for a CD-ROM project released in 1994 entitled Headcandy created by Chris Juul and Doug Jipson. Eno thought the visual aspects of the disc (video feedback effects) were very disappointing upon completion, and regretted participation. During this period, Fripp also contributed to albums by No-Man (a band featuring Porcupine Tree’s Steven Wilson) and The Beloved (1994’s Flowermouth and 1996’s X, respectively). He also contributed soundscapes and guitar to two albums by the UK band Iona: 1993’s Beyond These Shores and 1996’s Journey into the Morn. He also provided guitar and soundscapes for Porcupine Tree’s album Fear of a Blank Planet. Fripp was offered a teaching position at the American Society for Continuous Education (ASCE) in Claymont Court, West Virginia in 1984. He had been involved with the ASCE since 1978, eventually serving on its board of directors, and had long been considering the idea of teaching guitar. His course, Guitar Craft, was begun in 1985, an offshoot of which was a performance group, “The League of Crafty Guitarists”, which has released several albums. In 1986, he released the first of two collaborations with his wife, Toyah Willcox. The members of the California Guitar Trio are former members of The League of Crafty Guitarists, and Gitbox Rebellion includes several former Guitar Craft students. The California Guitar Trio has also toured with King Crimson. Fripp is the patron of the Guitar Circle of Europe, which was founded in 2007, and of the Seattle Circle Guitar School, which was founded in 2010. In February 2009, Fripp recommended that Guitar Craft cease to exist on its 25th anniversary in 2010. Fripp returned to recording solo in 1994, using an updated version of the Frippertronics technique that creates loops employing digital technology instead of analogue tapes. Fripp has released a number of records that he called “Soundscapes”, 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, as well as numerous download-only live recordings. (The sampler Pie Jesu consists of material compiled from A Blessing of Tears and The Gates of Paradise.) On the Soundscapes recordings, the inner workings of the music are not as clearly laid bare as they are on Let the Power Fall, perhaps because of the greater possibilities offered by the new technology. During 2004, Fripp toured with Joe Satriani and Steve Vai as the guitar trio G3. Robert Fripp worked at Microsoft’s studios to record new sounds and atmospheres for Windows Vista.[9][10] this interesting factoid: in addition to 200 million Vista users with the 4 note splash, an extract from the Soundscapes’ Vista sessions is estimated to strike up 91% of 32 trillion times on the new MS Mail programme this year. So, one of the planet’s least popular music forms will also be the planet’s most sounded in 2008. This has to be some kind of a record. Fripp’s online diary at dgmlive.com[11] In late 2005 and early 2006, Fripp joined Bill Rieflin’s improvisational Slow Music project, along with guitarist Peter Buck, Fred Chalenor (acoustic bass), Matt Chamberlain (drums) and Hector Zazou (electronics). This collective of musicians toured the west coast in May 2006. In October 2006, ProjeKct Six (Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew) played at select venues on the east coast of the U.S.,[12] opening for Porcupine Tree. Throughout 2006, Fripp performed many solo concerts of soundscapes in intimate settings, especially in churches around the West Midlands in England, where he lives. Fripp has contributed soundscapes to two songs for Porcupine Tree’s Fear of a Blank Planet. He is featured on the tracks “Way Out Of Here” and “Nil Recurring,” the second of which was released in September 2007 as part of the “Nil Recurring” EP. Robert has also sporadically performed Soundscapes as an opening act for Porcupine Tree on various tours from 2006 through 2009. In 2008, he collaborated with Theo Travis on ‘Thread’, an album of guitar & flute or saxophone duets. They also did some live concerts in England in mid-2009 in support of that album. Fripp also played a 2009 concert with the band The Humans, which consists of his wife Toyah Willcox, Bill Rieflin and Chris Wong. The performance in Tartu marked the release of The Humans’s first album We Are the Humans. Fripp (along with Pat Mastelotto and others) appears on Judy Dyble’s (Giles, Giles & Fripp; Fairport Convention; Trader Horne) album Talking With Strangers released August 2009. Fripp also played on two tracks on Jakko M. Jakszyk’s album The Bruised Romantic Glee Club and has been collaborating, casually, with Jakszyk and former Crimson member Mel Collins. Jakszyk is married to Michael Giles’ younger daughter Amanda. Fripp also contributed with a guitar solo to an extended version of the song ‘Heathen Child’ by Grinderman in 2010, released as a B-side on the single under the title ‘Super Heathen Child’. In January 2010, Fripp began recording sessions for a full project with Jakko Jakszyk and Mel Collins (a former King Crimson member). The album, called A Scarcity of Miracles: A King Crimson ProjeKct, was released by Jakszyk, Fripp and Collins in May 2011 on the Panegyric label. It also features further contributions by Tony Levin and Gavin Harrison, two-thirds of the current King Crimson rhythm section. from wikipedia
