When Richard Norris and Soft Cell’s Dave Ball, better known as The Grid, rediscovered a tranche of unused soundscapes from sessions with Robert Fripp during the early 1990s, when the guitarist’s ethereal ’scaping graced The Grid’s 456 and Evolver albums, they were galvanised into action.
The result is a rather beautiful sequence of pieces in which rich synth tones unfurl and stretch in tandem with Fripp’s languid note building. The already widescreen, cinematic creations really go up a gear when heard in a brand new 5.1 surround mix by David Singleton, Fripp’s co-producer and creative partner at DGM. In this medium, the low drones transform in window-rattling subsonics while diaphanous, spacey strings reach out to entangle and embrace.