One day while I was taking a break from my piano lessons, my teacher Grant Horrocks played me the opening track of this album. At the time, I had never heard most of these instruments played in this style before. I first thought the kalimba, bells, violin, and guitar harmonics were samples, since they were playing in different meters, keys, rhythms, etc. In my mind, I began to picture a movie set in a futuristic environment, starting with a music store full of voices, until a waterfall (the chimes) directs me to a mysterious house (the multi-tracked violins and guitars). When the free percussion started, I was picturing plates, bowls, and glasses, then when the big section came in, I wondered, “What key is this song in?” It had a very mysterious, dark, and adventurous sound! I remembered singing it sometime later, and asked Grant what the name of this song was. After he told me, I was very fascinated to check out the rest of the album.

I also imagined each instrument as a character with various personalities: the violin with its innocent, dreamy, adventurous qualities and surprises at the end of the album, the guitar with its aggressive and beautiful emotions, etc.

This was also my intro to hearing dry production. I was used to hearing a lot of reverb in albums by Joe Jackson, E.L.P., etc, then to hear music with dry ambience, it opened up lots of possibilities. This was before checking out producers like Rick Rubin who recorded Johnny Cash’s final albums, along with a few live sounding tracks from Adele’s album, 21.

Because I had been listening to a lot of keyboard driven albums around this time, this was the first album I heard where it used the guitar as a full lead and chordal instrument in the progressive rock genre.

I also love John Wetton’s basslines. Plus, he was able to go between a clean and distorted sound to add any emotion the music was leading the listener to.

I think this was also one of the first things I heard (before checking out The Beatles and John Lennon) with the short echo on the vocals, particularly in songs like “Exiles,” and my favorite, “Easy Money.”

One feature I’ve learned from this album is the way Robert Fripp uses compositional approaches to improvisation, particularly in “Easy Money.” This was before I checked out John Coltrane, so there were a lot of similar ideas in common. This is also why I loved performing this song with others on last year’s Cruise to the Edge. (smile) It was a lot of fun!!!!

When “The Talking Drum” starts, I always imagine the trumpet echos as distant voices talking to each other. This is also one of my favorite build moments, starting really soft and distant, until the energy increases in volume, mood, distortion, pitches, interaction between the violin and guitar. Then once the trumpets return, it’s like a dream sequence in my mind.

The final song is my favorite, “Larks’ Tongues In Aspic (Part II).” I’ve always enjoyed the rhythmic shifts, and how they used multi-tracking to give a fuller sound. Then there’s the wild percussion solo during the last chorus! This leads to the final resolution. In my head, I imagined the decrease in volume (where the violin sustains the chord) as, “We’re home.” Pretty cool stuff!

I’ve always enjoyed all kinds of albums, whether it’s a collection of songs, a conceptual album going from one place to another, etc. I also remember listening to this album before checking out the early version of the group with Greg Lake. I might do that one later. Anyway, I hope you’ll enjoy this album like I have.

Here are my covers of Larks’ Tongues In Aspic Parts I & II