Though not intended as such, in some respects
Leviathan and its creators represent between them one version of the history of
British electronic music. In 1973, the curiosity of a significant chunk of the
King Crimson and Roxy Music fan bases, along with an attractive price,
propelled Fripp & Eno’s No
Pussyfooting into many thousands of homes where no such recording had
previously registered a single sleeve, much less a gatefold. By the early 80s
Dave Ball & Marc Almond’s Soft Cell were at the forefront of a wave of
synth based bands who dominated the singles and albums charts. In the 1990s,
The Grid – Dave Ball (again) & Richard Norris formed a key act in what was
sometimes referred to as Electronica, sometimes herded under the (almost
meaningless) “Dance music” category, occasionally (equally
inaccurately/narrowly) described as “ambient” music, the struggles of music
industry name-taggers never quite catching either the breadth of the music
involved, nor recognising – until much later – the scope of its influence.
The Grid’s success - a number of hit singles and
albums, including the million selling “Swamp Thing”, world tours, remixes for
Eno, Pet Shop Boys, Yello, Sylvian/Fripp – could find a ready audience among
those for whom, by now, electronic music was part of the everyday musical
fabric and commonality of experience, even as it continued to evolve and
develop as a form in itself.
The Grid were managed at the time (1992) by David
Enthoven who had also managed King Crimson and Roxy Music from inception for
many years and by now with a Sylvian/Fripp remix among their producing credits,
it is no surprise that the duo and Fripp were keen to see if mutual recordings
would produce interesting results – hence the arrival of the equipment
described by Richard Norris above at Eastcote Studios in West London.
As Norris further notes: ‘Robert’s craft and
musicianship was slightly daunting to us at first, being from a more DIY, post
punk electronic background, but we soon worked out a language to communicate
in. “Make it sound like a
thunderstorm…”, “I’m going to make a sound like a bomb”, that kind of
thing. After every track, Robert would
say “Have you got any more?” and seemed to be greatly enjoying himself. He was
a very generous guest’.
The resulting Fripp
recordings provided material for much of The Grid’s second album ‘456’ and
their Top 20 follow-up album ‘Evolver’.
But there was more, much
more….
A few years ago, The Grid rediscovered tapes from
these sessions, including unreleased tracks they’d worked up but never
completed or mixed. A set of long solo drone pieces from Fripp was discovered
along with a lost track that was then remixed to become ‘A Cabala Sky’ by The
Grid / Fripp and released as part of Bill Brewster’s acclaimed ‘Late Night
Tales’ compilation series in 2014.
Further Fripp Soundscapes from the same period were added
to the mix by DGM’s David Singleton, which inspired The Grid to add new synths,
drums, programming and effects to create the album ‘Leviathan’ a CD/DVD-a set.
Inspired by the mythical whale ‘Leviathan’, the
biggest prehistoric whale that ever lived, Norris adds ‘I like Philip
Hoare’s book “Leviathan”, which is about his obsession with whales and whale
watching and the awe of coming into contact with such massive creatures. They are quite mysterious. Their brains are enormous, and we don’t quite
know what all the brain power is doing… A bit like Robert, really’.
Having completed the album’s stereo mixes, DGM
suggested the music as ideal for a full 5.1 surround mix by The Vicar.
Electronic music lends itself very well to Surround Sound mixing as the
listener has no fixed notion as to where any sound should emerge from. This mix
features on the CD/DVD-a edition (alongside the stereo mix) and while Surround
Sound is sometimes regarded as “niche” in terms of audience, the same would
have been said about any form of electronic music when Fripp turned up, guitar
in hand, at Eno’s place in 1972.
But then inquisitive musicians, even (perhaps
especially) when they approach music from very different perspectives, often
arrive at places that are as intriguing to an audience as they were to the
participants.