KING CRIMSON: Larks' Tongue In Aspic (PROGRESSIVE ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

"Larks' Tongue In Aspic"... This title, a kind of culinary metaphor of King Crimson's music, was found by Jamie Muir, a talented percussionist who will unfortunately only be present on this album. David Cross, violinist, will also participate to "Starless And Bible Back" before being ejected by the tyrannical Robert Fripp. Without these two musicians, this album would not be what it is and would not be the absolute masterpiece of the band that created progressive rock in October 1969. Without these two musicians, the kalimba intro of "Larks' Tongue In Aspic Part 1" would not exist and this 5-beat violin motif, on which the developments of the song are very subtly structured, would not exist either. And this is what makes "Larks' Tongue In Aspic" an exceptional work.

After the experience of "Islands", Robert Fripp totally reorganizes the formation: Bill Bruford of Yes (whom he has been harassing for 2 years) finally agrees to join the group, and John Wetton does not hesitate to sing and to take the place of bass player, without counting David Cross and Jamie Muir mentioned above. Even if John Wetton is called to sing, he still has little experience in this field, which explains the two-part structure (like "Islands") of the album.

The album starts with "Larks' Tongue In Aspic Part 1" whose intro is described above. This piece is a mystical and quasi-mechanical experience. Mystical because of the intro, and mechanical through this ultra-saturated guitar and which testifies as ever of the will of sound experimentation of Robert Fripp. This overpowering riff is supported by Bruford and Muir, both equipped with absolutely strange equipment (glockenspiel and other obscure percussions) which, combined with Robert Fripp's heartbreaking and dissonant solo, sound like an apocalypse of sound. This is followed by a rather hallucinating bass chorus in an absolutely diabolical meter that fades away to finally give way to David Cross who, in a very beautiful violin cadenza, quotes Vaughan Williams' "Lark Ascending". To describe the ending would be to spoil the redemptive beauty of the piece, which is best discovered for oneself.

When you leave this track, you realize that King Crimson is not like before: he now possesses a strength, a raw power that he can unleash at any moment without warning or, on the contrary, make it rise in a very gradual way, as on "The Talking Drum", a masterpiece dominated by percussions, drums and bass, and based on a very simple dissonant motif whose intensity increases little by little to explode in a deluge of distortion, and then end up drowned in strange screams which introduce "Larks' Tongue In Aspic Part 2". The latter is a much more violent reprise of the 5-beat violin motif of part 1, very fluid and coherent.

The three other tracks are quite different: "Exiles" illustrates itself in a very experimental but pleasant bruitism, "Easy Money" is more formal but not less excellent with this interlude dominated by the bass to finally fall on a liberating 'Eaaasyy Moneeeeyy! The sweet "Book Of Saturday" is a great vocal melody and has the only defect of not lasting longer.

"Larks' Tongue In Apsic" is thus, for King Crimson, the album of sound experimentation through dissonances, nuances and much more marked and violent sonorities. Certainly the most accomplished album of the group. Even after a good fifty listenings, it is far from being tiresome and is always surprising so much it is complex. - Official website

KING CRIMSON

LARKS' TONGUE IN ASPIC

ISLAND

PROGRESSIVE ROCK