The FraKctured Zone Guestbook page

Guestbook - Please sign the FraKctured Zone Guestbook although please note that you cannot post directly to the Guestbook.

Date	Visitor	Topic
28/06/01	Macon Patton	What a great site for players, fans and the rest of us...
For starters this is one of nicest web sites I've ever seen. I have a long and pleasing fairly one sided relationship with records, cd(s), dvd(s), now computers and best of all people (most of whom I've never met) concerning King Crimson, their friends, acquaintances, DGM and the industry they are on the way to redefining on various levels. I am a always learning - to be a bass guitar playing man, with short, yet strong fingers. I have a plan to spend a portion of my remaining life to do what many of you do - many apparently well - begin to learn to play that lovely beast with 6 -12 of the thinner strings in various tuning standards. I am unable to add much that has not been so eloquently written in this guest book or places that many of you and I travel; therefore, I will wish all of you well - especially the webmaster and developer of the "raison d'etre". Take care all and consider Mr.Robert Fulghum's words: "And it's still true, no matter how old you are - when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together." Macon Patton
Date	Visitor	Topic
21/06/01	Mike Champagne	Nashville warm-ups
I attended the last two of the four King Crimson warm-ups at 12th and Porter on Saturday, June 16, and Sunday, June 17, 2001, in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. During both shows I attended, FraKctured was part of the set list. Robert admits to having lost the grip on his pick on Saturday due to perspiration accumulation, and this due to the fact that the playroom at 12th and Porter is a quintessential sweaty small club (but quite a nice place just the same!) He also notes (in his diary) that this is the first time in his recollection that he has lost the grip on his pick. At any rate, there were a few flubs (in the moto perpetuo sections I believe) due to this, from which he recovered admirably. On Sunday, the piece was performed from the "brutal" section forward only, with no apparent missteps that I could detect. Why this was done is unknown; I initially surmised that, at least in part, Robert had perhaps decided to forego all but the last of the moto perpetuo sections due to his pick slippage from the night before. But there was more than enough opportunity for that in many other pieces performed on Sunday that he may as well have not played at all if that was his goal! However, performing the piece in such an excerpted fashion provides quite a jolt at the outset to an audience unprepared for it. An interesting development in both performances which I alluded to both in an on line review of the shows on the DGM site as well as in a personal email to Robert, and which he did not deny in response to either, is that Pat Mastelotto appears to be accompanying in straight 4/4 time throughout the "brutal" section. Not possessing an infallible memory, I was not certain if Pat was actually doing this or if his playing was simply giving this impression. But, as I said, Robert did not dispute my observation, so I guess I can still count beats (in 4/4 at least!). What this adds to the piece, however, is a great deal of tension, not that there's a shortage of that in the original arrangement! Thanks for a great site; despite it's seemingly narrow focus, there's a wealth of information available here. Regards, Mike Champagne New Orleans, LA, USA
Date	Visitor	Topic
06/06/01	Robin D. Craig	Smokin'
I saw King Crimson at 4th & B San Diego. Front row center. Fripp to the left and smokin'. The sound was great and the production was also great. I don't know if anyone in the back of the theater could see it but when Fripp was done he blew on his fingers and smoke came from them. Probably powder, but it was really cool. Robin Craig San Diego
Date	Visitor	Topic
03/06/01	maninspace	Hi there!
Hi, ok, I'm going for it : I'm in a band called Duke Scarlett, who mainly plays Crimcovers (surprise), and thanks to Marcus, who transcribed it, and this site, I'm going to study on FraKctured. When Duke gets it right, I'll be sure to post it's version. Some info, and solo efforts can be found on http://www.geocities.com/forimul/index.html . Note : do not expect anything Crimmy from the non Duke projects. cheers, Jan.
Date	Visitor	Topic
09/05/01	Belewp@cs.com	Hi there!
This is a wonderful site. Hopefully enough info will be available here so i can actually get a handle on these tough pieces of finger fileting monsters.
Date	Visitor	Topic
06/05/01	MarkJX@aol.com	Very cool site.
I found it through the SFBAGC. I'm also a Crafty in Colorado (www.gcco.org) and may have in my diaries commentary about the KC shows in Englewood. I remember that Robert absolutely blew the roof off on Friday and had a bit of a mishap on Saturday, or is that reversed? Anyway, "we'll let you know". Mark J.
Date	Visitor	Topic
30/4/01	Nic Roozeboom	Fractal's FraKctured mp3
Hi all, including Mark, No coercion necessary - I'm OK with the page, thanks for asking. I do have my reservations about this particular take, e.g. that it was as I remember a relatively good take among several bad ones which got me upset to the point that, well, this one resulted. About 3/4 into the track, sheer determination begins to substitute for musicality. I'm hoping by that time, most listeners will be either sufficiently pleased to be sympathetic to that, or sufficiently harangued to turn it off. BTW, a more objective disclaimer might be that this is played in POT (plain old tuning), which results in one note toward the final cadences not being what it should be, and a slew of twelve of them a bit later being octaved (a lesser crime). (This of course in the context of how I intended to play it, not how it actually turned out;-) Thank you for the kind remarks, and congratulations on this wonderful (and eye-opening) website. Regards, Nic
Nic - Thanks for this brilliant contribution to the Zone. I can hear the anger in your playing. This a real performance, not a guitarist practicing. Who cares about bum notes when the music burns. More! More! Webmaster
Date	Visitor	Topic
30/4/01	Karl Maybach	FraKctured story
I've also been checking out your web site. It's a great resource for anybody insane enough to attempt to play this piece. I see you are collecting FraKctured stories. Here is mine: I saw FraKctured played live here in Copenhagen on May 27, 2000. The version I saw is, in fact, the very one that appears on Heavy ConstruKction (at least part of it). In a concert full of highlights, that was probably the highest. I distinctly remember during this song staring and Fripp with my jaw literally hanging open and thinking over and over "madness... madness... madness..." and actually laughing out loud with the insanity of the performance. They played every song from TCOL and managed to make every one of them sound better and with extra energy (even though there were occasional mistakes). I think being able to watch them play live helped me to untangle the very dense sound of the new material. I came away with a whole new appreciation for TCOL; in fact, the new songs were the best parts of the show. The venue was on old movie house with the seats removed. A somewhat ornate balcony curved around the back of the hall. The band had set up a video camera up there under the "bootleg TV" banner. I assume it was this same type of arrangement that captured the concert in Rome for the video on the live album. With everyone standing, I was amused to note that many times during the show, the whole audience was bobbing their heads and bodies--practically dancing--with the complex rhythms of the band. Dancing to King Crimson--whoda thought! Trey Gunn really impressed me at that show. I could never pick him out in the double trio, but here with him all alone on the bottom end, I could really see what he was up to. An important part of the much improved sound of the live performance (compared to TCOL, at least on my home stereo) was the crisp, punchy and expressive bass sound that came out of his Warr guitar. Also being able to watch him play it, I suppose, made it easier to follow the bass lines. Especially on the new songs, the improved sound and ability to follow visually gave a more definite anchor; a vantage point from which to enjoy the rest of the band. - Karl
Date	Visitor	Topic
28/4/01	Tom Bolstad	FraKctured Live - Larks Link - FraKc Stick Tab
The venue for the Chicago shows was the Park West. They played three nights there, October 30-November 1. Had I lived in Chicago I'd've likely gone to all three, but I had to get time off from work & drive from Minnesota, and could only catch the Wednesday night show. I can not really claim much personal insight regarding my idea about the Larks' IV/Frakctured connection. It actually comes from rereading the program that I bought at the show. It included excerpts from Robert's DGM diary from when they were working out the material. The description of the challenges of executing the fast parts of Larks' IV really seemed to describe the section that is more or less common to both Larks IV and Frakctured. (They actually refer to 'Larks IV' and 'Larks V,' which I speculate are what are now called Larks IV and Frakctured.) I would welcome a Players Area on the site. I am a Stick player, of greater aspiration than accomplishment at this point. I am just recently returning to regular practice after a break of too many years. My youngest child being old enough to need less continual supervision coupled with a voluntary reduction in my work hours mean that I'm a musician again, and Fracture is slated to become part of my repertoire. Eventually-and this could be a VERY long time in coming, don't hold your breath-I hope to be able to post a Stick tablature for whatever arrangement I work out. Drum parts are being transcribed into my sequencer out of Bill Bruford's book "When in Doubt, Roll!" (Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation; ISBN: 0793535298, May 1988) which includes a number of his pieces in and out of KC; I hope that tidbit may be of interest to some of the readership.
Date	Visitor	Topic
26/4/01	Mallonee, James	FraKc Bass Tab
Howdy - My bandmates and I in Fractal (http://home.pacbell.net/adrian_c/fractal.html) have been slugging away at FraKctured for a while now, and have recently been actually able to play it all the way through (still a few rough patches here and there, but all-in-all we have it down). Thus it was very interesting to stumble across this site. I have been putting together TAB for the bass part (the old-fashioned 4-string variety), and I might send it in to you when I am done (it is in .INK format right now, so don't hold your breath). Maybe we will throw in an MP3 when we have a polished performance done. We hope to be performing live sometime this summer, so look for us (SF Bay area). I used Trey's charts extensively (thanks, dude), and am kind of glad that there isn't already a bass tab available. I would hate to have put in so much effort, only to find that somebody had already done it. No photos, please - Jim Mallonee
James - Let us know when & where you'll be performing and we'll post gig details here at the Zone (we may not have a wide reach but visitors are highly focussed!) also please supply mp3s, bass tabs etc and we'll post them all. Webmaster
Date	Visitor	Topic
26/4/01	michaelrfisher@hotmail.com	Hmmm...
One of the beauties of the Web is that a public forum can be created and can thrive for the most obscure of reasons...like enthusiasm not for an artist or band, but for two particular pieces of music. I've done some work with "Fracture" in the NST tuning, and don't anticipate being able to trot this thing out anytime in the next two or three decades. But it's great to see this amount of serious attention paid to it... Thanks, -MF www.sfbagc.com
Date	Visitor	Topic
25/4/01	Michael Adashefski	FraKctured live
My wife and I first heard this excellent piece at the afternoon show on 5/21/00 at 12th & Porter and it was quite amazing indeed. Having first seen the '74 line up perform Fracture in Central Park in July '74 I was again expecting a very complicated piece of music and this lived up to my wishes. But FraKctured takes over where Fracture left off years earlier, taking new twists and turns that I wasn't expecting, like riding a wicked roller coaster in the dark! There are surprises lurking behind each corner as in the original but there are some beautiful melodic passages as well, slow and flowing before taking off again at breath-taking speed. This is one of those occaisions where the sister piece is just as interesting as the original and continues that train of thought and inspiration without trying to copy or borrow from the original too heavily. FraKctured does have a life of its own without relying on its predecessor and it shows the growth of ideas within a familiar framework. When inspiration strikes him again this way, I'd love to hear Fripp try this type of writing in the future. And all this from a Drummer!
Date	Visitor	Topic
24/4/01	Kade	My FraKctured experience
Saturday May 20th, 2000 - Nashville Warm-up Shows (#2 of 4) prior to Euro Tour Not being totally familiar with FraKctured (TCOL had not been released yet in the States), I was looking especially forward to this piece as I had really enjoyed Fracture in the past. Everything was going great during Crimson's FraKctured, until the piece....well.... it fraKctured. This happened JUST before Fripp goes into the blazing guitar solo section. The whole band came to a halt and they were all looking at Fripp. Fripp announces to us, "Excuse me, while I reboot" Apparently Fripp's gear locked up and the foot pedal did not switch effects. Well of course this moment of pause in the performance left the audience open to deliver some good natured heckling as Fripp rebooted his "space module." I remember someone yelling "Windows!!" as someone else yelled, "Fripp get a Mac" In which case everyone had a good laugh. Also an audience member was kind enough to wish Fripp Happy birthday in which we all clapped (Fripp celebrated a birthday just days ago). As the band was about to start again, someone yelled, "Start over" and Fripp stood and said something like, "I challenge that gentleman to get up here and play." We laughed. Soon after that, Ade counted off and the band took off from where they left off.
Date	Visitor	Topic
23/4/01	Marcus Enochsson	FraKctured tab
Hi there, all other snowed-in music fanatiKcs! I was happy & proud to see my FraKctured tab on this site, and want to show my respect and good wishes anyone who attempts to play it in whatever form and whatever the outcome. As we all know, it is in fact totally impossible to play. I suspect a computer recorded it. Anyway, it's worth giving it a try just for the laugh. Concerning the tab, I sent many silent "Thank You"s to mr. Fripp for his sense of structural and logical (?) - though not predictable - composing. Many of the crosspicking RF parts & pieces tend to have some sort of "key(s)" - and when you've worked out the key(s), you have the whole song by your fingertips if you just listen for the changes within that key. For the FraKctured tab, it was the picking pattern and left hand chord formations that made it for me. The solo is less logical, and a bit too many miles an hour for me to grasp. Finally, a great piece o' musiKc it is indeed. Especially the solo, who have causes many of the little hairs over my body to rise in awe over the thundering Fripp's speed-of-light cross picking. Marvellous! Just plain marvellous... Sincerely, Marcus Enochsson
Date	Visitor	Topic
23/4/01	Tom Bolstad	Various
It made my day to see your website. No one seemed to have mentioned yet that KC opened the November 1st, 2000 show in Chicago with Fraktcured. It kind of surprised me, I thought of this as a piece that they'd build up toward. Amazing to me, that this could actually be done live by human hands. As far as comparing Fracture and Frakctured: at first I thought of the newer one as a reworking of the underlying theme of the older one. More recently, I've begun to think that it's origin may have been more of an outgrowth of Larks' Tongues Part IV. Regardless, both are awesome. I'd love to hear bands (with the finesse to do it well) play covers of them, if imaginatively done: Frakctured arranged for assorted brass, flute, piccolo, saxes and a plethora of percussives, for instance, has been going through my head the last few days. I'm excited about the prospect of a real discussion of practical tips on the substantial technical challenges of playing either of these monsters live, and will be coming back to this site regularly in anticipation of that. I'll start off with a humble contribution : I think that the similarity in tone color between the guitar and violin on Fracture was quite intentional, and greatly adds to the cohesion of the parts where they play in unison. I could name other pieces in the KC catalog where the guitar and another, non-guitar instrument used similar tone color to good effect, but I respect the defined focus of this site. Finally, a tip: don't listen to either of these pieces while chopping vegetables. (Ouch!!)
Date	Visitor	Topic
22/4/01	mike mclaughln	FraKctured live
Hi. I saw King Crimson play FraKctured in London on The ConstruKction Of Light tour it was a great gig. I've long been a fan of King Crimson and am in the process of forming a band (having been through a number of others) I have been considering many Crimsongs for the band to do as covers Fracture and FraKctured are two of those that I've been working on myself. I'm still deciding whether to do my own take on both of them or just Frakctured (I'm already trying to do a concise version of Larks Tongues In Aspic with passages from each of the four parts). Mike McLaughlin.
Mike - in accordance with our stated 3rd Aim we will be delighted to promote your performances of FraKctured/Fracture here at the FraKctured Zone - just let us know the where & when. Hell - I'll even COME!!! Webmaster
Date	Visitor	Topic
22/4/01	R G	FraKctured live
Good luck with the performance page. I know they played the piece at both shows at the Theater of Living Arts in Philadelphia, November 16 and 17 - hope this helps..
Date	Visitor	Topic
20/4/01	phil lister	MIDI
This is brilliant! I downloaded the MIDI file in microseconds. Even though the whole piece is for the full band, the guitar parts on their own really give an insight into the konstruktion of the composition (sorry about the spelling!).
Date	Visitor	Topic
17/4/01	ThomRoberts	HI!
interesting site you have there...... good luck Thom Roberts Icon/Electronics Manager Light and Sound Design/Fourth Phase Nashville 615 641 2450
Date	Visitor	Topic
14/4/01	Daniel Gomez Casanouve	HI!
HI! I really appreciate your effort and dedication shown in Frakctured website as it keeps alive the work and genius of the man in the shadows of the stage: Mr. Robert Fripp. I�ll try to start twisting my fingers with the tabs. Long live Frakctured! Daniel Gomez Casanouve.
Date	Visitor	Topic
11/4/01	James de Winter ntl	HI!
hello well yes i have seen frakctured live but i can't really remeber what if was like. the bushy empire was filled with some rather noisey italian girls - well at least they were girls which was a rather nice change. It strikes me that there is a wine like nature to pieces like frakctured where perhaps you should not be allowed to hear them live untill you've got to know them well enough - is seems that 5 years would be about right. If i were to see the THRACK tour now i would love it so much more that i did. Same for the COL tour. Ho Hum. I was wondering if it would be possible to get your midi files (Frakctured particuarlly) as ring tones for my mobile - i would be the envy of everyone - well myself at least but it would make me very happy indeed. Can i love KC and all it's children and not be sad in any way.. discuss. sorry if i've made a few spelling mistakes i can never remember if the K goes before or after the C, if only i'd paid attention to mis Jones at school.... cheerio james
James, I can give you FraKctured as a ring tone for your mobile if you email me your (RingTone Composer compatible) phone number. Great idea! Anyone else... Webmaster
Date	Visitor	Topic
11/4/01	Rupe	HI!
Nice site - but you are obviously very sad.
Date	Visitor	Topic
10/4/01	R G	HI!
Thanks! Being just an adequate rhythm guitarist myself, this has convinced me more than ever not to quit my day job. Anyway, it's good to see someone even more obsessed with KC than I am. Great site.