AT THE END OF TIME

A Sunday Times CD of the week no less..as Fripp implies in his typically effusive sleeve notes, if you were to have come along to a performance of his "Churchscapes" expecting some hard riffing then you would be disappointed. Here, it's Fripp and his "Solar Voyager" playing solo in a series of churches in the UK and in Estonia. I wasn't especially aware of it being live - no audience in the background re-acting in any way to the music, not even a cough - but you can ocassionally sense that Fripp's playing is less confident than at other times, that he's not in the studio.

It is electric, ambient music, not unsuited to a spiritual place of worship. I don't know how Fripp's Solar Voyager actually works but the sounds generated sound like a mix of synth, percussion, and of course, guitar. So it's much more like "No Pussyfooting" and not at all like "Red". Not an album to play in the car, as I soon realised; very definitely an album to listen to on headphones, one that creates a meditative, spiritual mood. I loved it - difficult to pick out any one track but the final pairing from a place called Haapsalu was my favourite, I could imagine the sounds swelling and filling the rafters before slowly fading away. Fripp showing then that he is still a master at developing himself and to coin an over-used phrase, pushing the boundaries. 4 solid stars.