King Crimson ?Larks' Tongues In Aspic LP 1973 Australian Island pink rim +insert

	A$		55
	$		36

King Crimson ?Larks' Tongues In Aspic LP 1973 Australian Island pink rim +insert

Original Australian pressing on Island with insert

Larks' Tongues in Aspic is the fifth studio album by the English progressive rock group King Crimson, originally released in 1973. This album is the debut of King Crimson's third incarnation, featuring original member and guitarist Robert Fripp and new members John Wetton (vocals, bass guitar), David Cross (violin, Mellotron), Jamie Muir (percussion), and Bill Bruford (drums). It is also a key album in the band's evolution, drawing on Eastern European classical music and European free improvisation as central influences.

At the end of the tour to promote King Crimson's previous album, Islands, Fripp had parted company with the three other members of the band (Mel Collins, Boz Burrell and Ian Wallace). The previous year had also seen the ousting of the band's lyricist and artistic co-director Peter Sinfield. In all cases, Fripp had cited a developing musical (and sometimes personal) incompatibility, and was now writing a starker music drawing less on familiar American influences and more on influences such as Béla Bartók and free improvisation.

In order to pursue these new ideas, Fripp first recruited bass guitarist/singer John Wetton (a longstanding friend of the band who'd lobbied to join at least once before but had become a member of Family in the meantime). The second recruit was Jamie Muir, a wildly experimental free-improvising percussionist who'd previously been performing in the Music Improvisation Company with Derek Bailey and Evan Parker, as well as in Sunship (with Alan Gowen and Allan Holdsworth) and Boris (with Don Weller and Jimmy Roche, both later of jazz-rock band Major Surgery).

On drums (and to be paired with Muir) Fripp recruited Yes drummer Bill Bruford. Another longstanding King Crimson admirer, Bruford felt that he had done all he could with Yes at that point, and was keen to leave the band before they embarked on their Close to the Edge tour, believing that the jazz- and experimentation-oriented King Crimson would be a more expansive outlet for his musical ideas. The final member of the new band was David Cross, a budding rock violinist and occasional keyboard player.

Larks' Tongues in Aspic showed several significant changes in King Crimson's sound. Having previously relied on saxophone and flute as significant melodic and textural instruments, the band had replaced them with a single violin. Muir's percussion rig featured exotic, eccentric instrumentation including chimes, bells, thumb piano/mbiras, a musical saw, shakers, rattles, found objects (such as sheet metal, toys and baking trays), plus miscellaneous drums and chains. The Mellotron (a staple part of King Crimson's instrumentation since their debut album) was retained for this new phase and was played either by Fripp or Cross, both of whom also played electric piano. The band's multi-instrumentalism initially extended to Wetton and Muir playing (respectively) violin and trombone on occasion at early gigs, but this was quickly dropped (Wetton and Cross did, however, contribute additional piano and flute to the Larks... album sessions).

Tracklist:

Larks' Tongues In Aspic, Part One   13:36

Book Of Saturday        2:49

Exiles 7:37

Easy Money    7:57

The Talking Drum      7:28

Larks' Tongues In Aspic, Part Two 7:10

CONDITION:

SLEEVE: VG+  Laminate lifting on back

INSERT:  VG+  A bit spotty, some browning; no rips or creases

RECORD: VG++  Spindle marking around hub, some surface noise in quieter passages (common even when new!)

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