Robert Fripp Visits Antarctica

Robert Fripp held a question and answer session at Antarctica Studio on January 16th, 2000.

Roughly 70 people attended the Nashville event from as far away as Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, Georgia and Louisiana. The session lasted almost four hours and included a surprise from Robert: the audience was treated to several finished (and unfinished) mixes from the upcoming King Crimson release. In our humble opinion we feel the new record is a scorcher!

The audience was instructed by Robert to write their name and a question on note cards which were then placed in a basket. Once the Q&A session was under way Robert randomly picked cards from the basket. As each card was chosen that person was asked why they were there, and what value their question had to them. This process turned the event into an interactive experience where attendees where not permitted to be passive spectators. Robert encouraged the attendees to consider their questions wisely, and would not let them off the hook if they could not sufficiently explain their motives. It was this attendee's opinion that Robert was simply trying to get us all to think more deeply, and to help us discover our own answers and more clearly define our questions. If an attendee was on the right track they were rewarded by a "sweet" tossed to them from Robert.

Towards the end of the event Robert repeatedly asked for burning questions... "on fire, burning questions". Only Robert himself could tell you if any of the ensuing questions were truly incendiary.

Even though Robert was under the weather with the "devil bug" he was entertaining, captivating and thought provoking. We at Antarctica feel that the session was a great success and would like to publicly thank Robert Fripp for his invaluable time and effort in realizing this event.

Below is a picture of Robert with members of the Antarctica staff and assistants. The event was also covered in the March issues of Mix and Pro Sound News magazines. Click here to view the articles.

(L-R) John Elliott, John Trevethan, RF, Brenda Trevethan, Chris Tench.
(photo by Tim Buchanan)