Sunday 18 August 2013

Prelude: Song of The Gulls (King Crimson, 1971)

I'm always charmed by this orchestral track I consider a masterpiece. The structure, the arrangement and the instrumentation are those of a classical composition, elegant, peaceful and admirably balanced between strings and wind instruments. Rock music seems completely absent here, but please don't forget progressive rock is a hybrid genre, living and growing up tearing down the walls we sometimes build up in our minds. So, this Robert Fripp's sweet and relaxing melody could have been a rock ballad or an acoustic guitar solo, and maybe it was at first. 

A fashionable Robert Fripp.

But it isn't now, of course, and Fripp offers us this crystal machinery, this delicate clockwork belonging to a higher and lighter world I get lost in. Last but not least, this song is a Prelude, introducing the title track of "Islands", another masterpiece you may read about in this blog, so that the suspended atmosphere and the pointed rythm of "Song of The Gulls" counter-balances the gloomy and inner following song. Once again, well done!

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