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Robert Fripp - That Which Passes

Artist:	Robert Fripp
Title:	That Which Passes
Label:	Discipline Global Mobile DGM 9507
Length(s):	43 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1996
Month of review:	10/1996

Line up

Robert Fripp - everything

Tracks

1)	On Acceptance	4.02
2)	On The Approach Of Doubt	1.40
3)	The Leap	1.39
4)	A Worm In Paradise	3.56
5)	New Worlds	12.08
6)	On Triumph	2.25
7)	On Awe	3.43
8)	This Too Shall Pass	3.04
9)	The Fear Of Light	4.45
10)	A Time To Die	6.01

Summary

After two live albums with soundscapes this closes the Trilogy in some sense. There's a fourth volume obtainable only from DGM mailorder. You will also get a box to put all four volumes in. The fourth CD is called Soundbites.

An important difference with the previous two is that although this CD is part of the trilogy it is not live and it has more or less been constructed from live concerts.

The music

For you who do not yet know what Soundscapes are, I tend to view it as an improvisation on guitar, but in such a way that the sound of it all is rather etheric (put stress on that word) or eerie or cosmic whatever you like. These in any case are objectively, you might say what the music on this album sounds like. It doesn't however tell you anything about the moods it evokes. The booklet says that it is mostly about mourning (in Fripps case for his mother) and this adds a momentum if you like to the performance.

It is however plain that this is not the chaotic interaction within KC or the highly neurotic band in the studio. It is a musician who lets himself be guided over fields of melody, opening vistas upon impressions, taking roundabout routes, pensive and maybe a little depressing and desolate.

Although I do not have the other two albums I tend to wonder what the difference is between them. For instance whether the difference between a real live album and this one is very large, because in this case the makers have been able to construct a route for us, instead of letting us follow the one Robert made up while he was playing it. A little unfair? Well, maybe, but also rewarding.

Most tracks on this album are more or less cosmic although The Leap is spooky, On the Approach of Doubt and On Triumph have these accelerating sounds. In the last track, we are at peace with the world.

Conclusion

To conclude with Robert: this album is not what we expected it to be, neither is it otherwise.