LARKS' TONGUES IN ASPIC

Masterpiece is a word that is perfectly sufficient to describe the hectic sonic Abaddon separated into six compositions that leave you sweaty, excited, and severely bewildered, right after finishing the last notes of the recording. Recorded in early 1973 and released in March, 'Larks Tongues in Aspic' is an album that crushes down all classifications and tags.

Right before this, King Crimson had released the more jazzy, romantic, and even a bit shy album 'Islands' but a musical incompatibility between the Crimson king himself, and the rest of the band members resulted in the departure of Mel Collins, Boz Burrell and Ian Wallace, in addition to the parting of the ways of the band and Peter Sinfield, just to be replaced by an entirely new line-up that was supposed to pursue an entirely different musical direction, and so it did. John Wetton on bass and vocals, Bill Bruford from Yes on drums, David Cross on violin (and viola), replacing the role of the wind instrument, and Jamie Muir, a free-improvising percussionist who was an underground legend at the time.

This line-up had the task to create compositions based on free improvisation while drawing influences on Eastern European classical music, most likely sparked by Robert Fripp's interest in the music of Béla Bartók. This was made possible heavily because of the presence of the very interesting figure of Jamie Muir in the band - his rig, often resembling a junkyard, featured bells, shakers, rattles, chains, and all sorts of random drums and found objects which could, of course, only add a unique element to the music.

The title track, or rather its two separated parts that bookmark the album are staples in King Crimson's catalogue, the first of which is entirely a band effort. 'Book of Saturday' and 'Exiles' are melancholic and somewhat gloomy, 'Easy Money' is a rocking, jazzing, throbbing masterpiece, and 'The Talking Drum' is pure cathartic chaos.

Pulsating, utterly full of suspense, dramatic, and unthought-of, yet invigorating and relieving in a strange and hard to describe way, this album has to be absorbed to be understood (well, partly understood, at least). An album that does not necessarily make sense, while it gives off a strong sense of inseparable wholeness; a record that will shock you, excite you, scare you, and finally perplex you, 'Larks' Tongues in Aspic' will also inspire you and it will demand your attention throughout every single second, just to give you the final blissful feeling of completion and nervous expectation!