These days, I dream more than I’ve done in a very long time. Last night, I overheard a discussion between several member of an Antarctic science team who were involved in something shady and duplicitous. I thought to myself: ‘If I could remember the scenario, I’d have the makings of a radio play.’ Of course, on waking, all recollections, save the emotional memory of the encounter, evaporated.

Yesterday, I received a response from Mr Fripp to a brief letter of encouragement and thanks that I’d sent regarding for the King Crimson concert, which my elder son and I had attended on November 3. However famous and gifted an artist may be, constructive observations on their work are always welcome.

Dear Robert
Great gratitude for your work on Saturday evening. My son and I had a blast. I’ve followed KC’s music since I was sixteen years of age.  At the performance, my life seemed to pass before my ears. It was heartening to see so many young people among the audience’s demographic. They, I suspect, are discovering the music not as a historic document but, rather, as a phenomenon that’s as new, vital, and evolutionary as those who play it.

8.30 am: Studiology. I listened again to ‘The Lesser Light’. On this occasion, I played the track at low volume. If the composition can hold my attention under this condition, then it’s there. I committed a further two hours to the piece, in order to introduce small elements that would tweak the dynamics of specific sections. Over the weekend, my mind had been teeming with enthusiasm for, and plans about, new undertakings and opportunities, which will present themselves in the coming year.

But, today, in the here and now, I considered ‘Beth & Bill’. The completed composition would be ‘performed’/constructed at a lecture ‘gig’ in London on January 7, 2019. The piece permits me to engage those parts of the Scourby recording that are extra-biblical, namely: his announcements at the beginning of each side regarding the contents of each side, along with the reader’s description of the recording, as such. From the outset, I’ve known that the composition would be based on the couple’s inventory of listening.

I regard the above as a set of instructions to be interpreted and followed. The ‘performance’ rig needs to be simple and eminently portable. (Gig in a Bag ready.)

The addition of a looper and further modulators may become necessary.  The composition will decide. After lunch, I tabulated the information from the inventory of listening:

Afterwards, I set up a session for ‘One Day’: the composition where Alexander Scourby meets Dr Martin Luther King Jr. on another timeline, as it were. I ordered the beat tracks and pondered how the composition might move into territory that’s unoccupied by the other pieces on the CD. Developing a pervasive familial likeness across the suite is one thing, repetition is quite another. Late afternoon, the rain began to tinkle upon the Velux window.

The evening began with a periodic update of my activities on various databases and CVs. Later, I stretched the Scourby/King sequences ×20 to produce a seriously despairing undertone. Boy! It really kicked off. (I wondered what my ‘muse’ would have made of it.)