spherical, jazzy, moody, sometimes intently boring

A new project by and with Robert Fripp, who as usual carrying out his work as a guitarist and the compositions decorated primarily with its typical soundscapes.

With this Jaakko M. Jaksyk (Level 42, The Lodge, 21st Century Schizoid Band). The all-round musician has here concentrating on vocals, guitar, keyboards and Gu Zheng (a Chinese zither), but otherwise he also plays bass, piano, saxophone, clarinet and flute.

For the brass sounds (saxophone, clarinet and flute) is responsible to Scarcity Mel Collins. He was already a member of King Crimson and Alan Parsons Project and played especially in the British popular music scene with musicians such as Peter Gabriel, Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Mike Batt, Eric Burdon, Roger Waters, etc. Noteworthy: In between, he was for many years a member of the Harald Schmidt band.

Tony Levin on bass and Stick is an integral bassist of Peter Gabriel, King Crimson again at, but also played with David Bowie, Pink Floyd, Seal, Paul Simon, John Lennon, etc.

Gavin Harrison (2007-2010) "best progressive drummer of the year" (Modern Drummer magazine) is a member of Porcupine Tree and played with in formations like King Crimson, Blackfield, No-Man, etc.

The five musicians give us a mostly calm and atmospheric album. Fripp is focused on its soundscapes that often overlap with the saxophone Collins. Every now and then a slow guitar solo, that's about it. Fripp entirely dispensed with fast, technical guitar playing. Jaksyk occurs naturally, especially with his vocals to the fore. His warm voice is expressive, but also little variable and sounds always very controlled. As you might expect supply Levin and Harrison the right foundation for the music. You always play music at a high level, but without ever playing intrusive to the fore.
In addition to spherical ambient sounds, the CD sounds partly very jazz emphasizes. A new facet that one would not necessarily expect such Fripp and his colleagues.
The result is a compelling high musical album, which you can chalk up the most that the titles sometimes differ enough from each other. A little more variety would have been desirable and slightly less "Frippertronics". In between the Soundgewaber can sometimes be boring to annoying. Especially the last title (The Light of Day) can almost be described as a "bouncer".

The DVD brings the title in the 5.1 surround mix and stereo mix in. In addition, you will find the video A Scarcity of Miracles and two other improvised bonus tracks, but you do not really want to have. If you are not a 5.1 supporter, the acquisition of the box is rather questionable. The normal CD reaches certainly.

Addendum of 12/06/2011
King Crimson (or its cross-projects) I'm used to that music reveals itself more and more with frequent Listen and thereby also wins. Unfortunately I can not confirm that at this CD. What already annoying when initially Listen, will in the long run more boring. The mood of the title is easy to uniformly, the song to any, Fripp too little creative and Collins droning too often as a mere ornamental decoration. Since then comes but on the desire that bass and drums get more free space.

Since the CD already makes no real fun more after such a short time, there is now one point less.
Unfortunately, too little substance and too much boredom.