KING CRIMSON — Larks' Tongues In Aspic (1981) Three Version (1987, Japan, EMI-Toshiba, 32VD-1122) + (1988, Virgin Japan, VJD-28003 | Serie Big Artist Collection) + (2012, RM | 2CD | King Crimson 40th Anniversary Series) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

King Crimson reborn yet again -- the then-newly configured band makes its debut with a violin (courtesy of David Cross) sharing center stage with Robert Fripp's guitars and his Mellotron, which is pushed into the background. The music is the most experimental of Fripp's career up to this time -- though some of it actually dated (in embryonic form) back to the tail-end of the Boz Burrell-Ian Wallace-Mel Collins lineup. And John Wetton was the group's strongest singer/bassist since Greg Lake's departure three years earlier. What's more, this lineup quickly established itself as a powerful performing unit, working in a more purely experimental, less jazz-oriented vein than its immediate predecessor. "Outer Limits music" was how one reviewer referred to it, mixing Cross' demonic fiddling with shrieking electronics, Bill Bruford's astounding dexterity at the drum kit, Jamie Muir's melodic and usually understated percussion, Wetton's thundering yet melodic bass, and Fripp's guitar, which generated sounds ranging from traditional classical and soft pop-jazz licks to hair-curling electric flourishes. Bruce Eder
Tracklist :
1. Larks' Tongues In Aspic, Part One (13:36)
Bill Bruford / David Cross / Robert Fripp / Jamie Muir / John Wetton
2. Book Of Saturday (02:56)
Robert Fripp / Richard Palmer-James / John Wetton
3. Exiles (07:41)
David Cross / Robert Fripp / Richard Palmer-James
4. Easy Money (07:53)
Robert Fripp / Richard Palmer-James / John Wetton
5. The Talking Drum (07:27)
Bill Bruford / David Cross / Robert Fripp / Jamie Muir / John Wetton
6. Larks' Tongues In Aspic, Part Two (07:08)
Robert Fripp
Credits :
Robert Fripp – Guitars, Mellotron, Electric Piano, Devices
John Wetton – Bass Guitar, Vocals, Piano on "Exiles"
Bill Bruford – Drums
David Cross – Violin, Viola, Mellotron, Electric Piano, Flute on "Exiles"[9]
Jamie Muir – Percussion, "allsorts"
(assorted found items and sundry instruments)
Producer – King Crimson

KING CRIMSON — Starless And Bible Black (1981) Four Version (1987, Virgin Japan, 32VD-1123) + (1988, Serie Big Artist Collection | Virgin Japan, VJD-28004) + (1990, Virgin Japan, VJCP-2306) + (2011, USA | RM | Serie King Crimson 40th Anniversary Series) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Starless and Bible Black is even more powerful and daring than its predecessor, Larks' Tongues in Aspic, with jarring tempo shifts, explosive guitar riffs, and soaring, elegant, and delicate violin and Mellotron parts scattered throughout its 41 minutes, often all in the same songs. The album was on the outer fringes of accessible progressive rock, with enough musical ideas explored to make Starless and Bible Black more than background for tripping the way Emerson, Lake & Palmer's albums were. "The Night Watch," a song about a Rembrandt painting, was, incredibly, a single release, although it was much more representative of the sound that Crimson was abandoning than where it was going in 1973-1974. More to that point were the contents of side two of the LP, a pair of instrumentals that threw the group's hardest sounds right in the face of the listener, and gained some converts in the process. Bruce Eder
Tracklist :
1. The Great Deceiver (04:03)
Robert Fripp / Richard Palmer-James / John Wetton
2. Lament (04:05)
Robert Fripp / Richard Palmer-James / John Wetton
3. We'll Let You Know (03:42)
Bill Bruford / David Cross / Robert Fripp / John Wetton
4. The Night Watch (04:40)
Robert Fripp / Richard Palmer-James / John Wetton
5. Trio (05:41)
Bill Bruford / David Cross / Robert Fripp / John Wetton
6. The Mincer (04:11)
Bill Bruford / Richard Palmer-James / Robert Fripp / John Wetton
7. Starless And Bible Black (09:10)
Bill Bruford / David Cross / Robert Fripp / John Wetton
8. Fracture (11:15)
Robert Fripp
Credits :
Bass, Voice – John Wetton
Guitar, Mellotron, Electronics [Devices] – Robert Fripp
Lyrics By – Richard Palmer-James
Percussion [Percussives] – William Bruford
Producer – King Crimson
Violin, Viola, Keyboards – David Cross (tracks: 3, 5 to 7)

KING CRIMSON — Red (1981) Four Version (1987, Japan EMI-Toshiba, 32VD-1086) + (1988, Serie Big Artist Collection | Japan, Virgin, VJD-28021) + (1990, RM | Serie The Definitive Edition | Japan, Virgin, VJCP-2307) + (2013, USA | RM | 2CD | Serie King Crimson 40th Anniversary Series) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

King Crimson fell apart once more, seemingly for the last time, as David Cross walked away during the making of this album. It became Robert Fripp's last thoughts on this version of the band, a bit noiser overall but with some surprising sounds featured, mostly out of the group's past – Mel Collins' and Ian McDonald's saxes, Marc Charig's cornet, and Robin Miller's oboe, thus providing a glimpse of what the 1972-era King Crimson might've sounded like handling the later group's repertory (which nearly happened). Indeed, Charig's cornet gets just about the best showcase it ever had on a King Crimson album, and the truth is that few intact groups could have gotten an album as good as Red together. The fact that it was put together by a band in its death throes makes it all the more impressive an achievement. Indeed, Red does improve in some respects on certain aspects of the previous album – including "Starless," a cousin to the prior album's title track – and only the lower quality of the vocal compositions keeps this from being as strongly recommended as its two predecessors. Bruce Eder
Tracklist :
1. Red (6:17)
2. Fallen Angel (6:03)
3. One More Red Nightmare (7:10)
4. Providence (8:10)
5. Starless (12:17)
Credits :
Alto Saxophone – Ian McDonald
Bass, Vocals – John Wetton
Cornet – Marc Charig
Guitar, Mellotron – Robert Fripp
Oboe – Robin Miller
Percussion [Percussives] – William Bruford
Soprano Saxophone – Mel Collins
Violin – David Cross

DAVID CROSS / ROBERT FRIPP - Starless Starlight [2016] / FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

David Cross and Robert Fripp are two of the four members of the awesome incarnation of King Crimson, John Wetton and Bill Bruford, were the other two members, that creates a small set of albums, that every progressive rock fan must have in his collection.

That was in 1973 and 1974, the albums: Lark tongues in Aspic, Starless and Bible Black and Red, this last one, their most magnificent creation, and also of King Crimson, in his entire life, second after The Court....
Beside the usual creativity in sounds and rhythms by the quartet, in this stage the band made some melodic and inspired ballads, sung by Wetton and masterly crafted and played by the group. Lyrics by Carl Palmer-James. One of those ballads is Starless, a very long song of over 12 min. and IMHO I would ask it never ends, due to its beauty.
This is the answer to that plea.
Delicate variations in violin and mellotron (Fripptronic) for the lovers of such music.
For those that don't know such song or the style of music on those years by KC and Fripp... just skip it!!!.
Melody can be boring and iterative. For me a nectar of the spirit. web
Tracklist
1 Starless Starlight Loops
2 In The Shadow
3 Shine And Fall
4 Starless Theme
5 One By One, The Stars Were Going Out
6 Fear Of Starlight
7 Starlight Trio
8 Sure Of The Dark
Credits
Guitar – Robert Fripp
Keyboards, Producer – Tony Lowe (tracks: 1, 2, 4, 5, 8)
Violin, Producer – David Cross

DAVID CROSS / ROBERT FRIPP - Starless Starlight

 [2016] Noise Records / FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

O Púbis da Rosa