When Andy Summers spoke to Noise11 in 2024 he mentioned the impending release of an expanded edition of ‘I Advanced Mask’, his 1981 album with Robert Fripp.
This week we learned that the project is ‘The Complete Recordings 1981-1984’ by Andy Summers and Robert Fripp on 3CD/1Blu-ray, alongside a new 2024 David Singleton mix of ‘I Advance Masked’ on 200-gram vinyl will be released on March 28th, 2025.
Andy told Noise11 in 2024, “that is coming to life again. Robert, or this guy who works with him, contacted me and said ‘we want to put out a record. Are there any extra tracks?’ As it happened, I had all the tapes, two inch tapes. He asked if I would send them. Long story short, he found another 12 outtakes and he eventually put them all together and he sent them back to me. I was knocked out by how good they were that we didn’t put them out on an album”.
The project will be released through Fripp’s record label. “Robert has a label that he puts his projects out on,” Andy said. “They are going to put it out. I think it will get a lot of attention because it will be a triple package, three CDs, very nice”.
Andy said he was surprised that there were so many tracks that were not used on the two albums they did together. “I was pretty dubious about it but when I listened back to what we had done and didn’t use, well sure,” he said.
In 1981 time was limited to how much would fit on an album. “Now all of this stuff can be on the internet. Its open house”.
Watch the Noise11 Andy Summers interview:
Watch Andy Summers and Robert Fripp ‘Parade’
Album info:
The Complete Recordings 1981-1984
Having crossed paths briefly in the ’60s in Bournemouth where Fripp took over Andy’s guitar chair in the band at Bournemouth’s Majestic Hotel, it wasn’t until 1981 – when Summers wrote to Fripp – that the two guitarists would work together.With King Crimson fresh from recording the now classic album ‘Discipline’ after a considerable break, Fripp was immediate in his response to Summers’s suggestion of working together. And though The Police were busy with the recording and touring of ‘Ghost in the Machine’, the two guitarists somehow managed to find time to
experiment, develop and record the first of their two albums.Whilst ‘I Advance Masked’ showcased the skill and differing guitar techniques of the two players with heavy influence of Fripp’s multi-rhythmic playing evident, their second 1984 album ‘Bewitched’ was a more melodic affair with the inclusion of additional personnel including bassist Chris Childs and Sara Lee, and as Fripp put it, “the album is a lot more Andrew than it is me”.
Almost 40 years later – during plans to reissue the original albums and searching for the original tapes – Summers came across four new tapes in a Los Angeles vault. Not only was mostof the original material on those tapes, but a treasure trove of previously unreleased material, early versions, alternative versions of tracks were unearthed.
From that, eleven unreleased tracks were arranged/edited and newly mixed and, along with an alternative take of “Maquillage” and an early slower version of “Parade”, a third mini album titled ‘Mother Hold the Candle Steady’ was created. More previously unreleased tracks such as Balinese and Brainstorm and delights such as an early mix of New Marimba were also discovered by David Singleton in the process of collating and mixing this collection.
In addition, this package includes an audio documentary titled ‘Can We Record Tony?’ which is from a series of cassettes Fripp kept, containing their original exploratory improvisations.
CD 1 – I Advance Masked
I Advance Masked
Under Bridges Of Silence
China – Yellow Leader
In The Cloud Forest
New Marimba
Girl On A Swing
Hardy Country
The Truth Of Skies
Painting And Dance
Still Point
Lakeland / Aquarelle
Seven On Seven
StultifiedAdditional Material:
Brainstorm
New Marimba (Early Mix)
Balinese
Seven On Seven (Reprise)CD 2 – Bewitched
Parade
What Kind Of Man Reads Playboy
Begin The Day
Train
Bewitched
Tribe
Maquillage
Guide
Forgotten Steps
Image And LikenessAdditional Material:
Tribe (Original Version)
Maquillage (Alt Original Mix)CD 3 – Mother Hold The Candle Steady (Previously Unreleased)
Impudent Prelude
Brainstorm
Tremors
Turkish Kitchen
Skyline
Foi Um Optimo Dia
San Antonio Blues
Mother Hold The Candle Steady
Entropy Pulse
Ninja Acid Dance
Step N’ Fetchit
Maquillage Ii
Parade Ii
Can We Record Tony? (Edit)Blu-Ray (All Content In 24/96 Hi-Res)
I Advance Masked – as CD including: new mixes stereo, new mixes surround (also in DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround), original mixes.
Bewitched – as CD including: new mixes stereo, new mixes surround (also in DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround), original mixes.
Mother Hold The Candle Steady – stereo, surround (also in DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround)
Can We Record Tony? (Complete)
I Advance Masked
With a very different sounding 1980s King Crimson lineup on tour and The Police’s status as one of the biggest acts in the world, it’s unsurprising that an album of guitar duets from Summers/Fripp – despite being as far apart from the concept of ‘guitar hero’ playing as possible to imagine, proved intriguing enough to spend several weeks in the US Billboard 200 charts.
This year, alongside ‘The Complete Recordings 1981-1984’, the new 2024 David Singleton mix of ‘I Advance Masked’ is released on 200-gram vinyl, cut by Jason Mitchell at Loud Mastering, including 2 previously unreleased tracks ‘Skyline’ and ‘Entropy Pulse’.
On the multitrack tapes for both ‘I Advance Masked’ and ‘Bewitched’, there were many unfinished tracks. With ‘Skyline’ and ‘Entropy Pulse’, Fripp (on ‘Skyline’) and Summers (on ‘Entropy Pulse’) had played numerous part-complete solos. According to Singleton, this left him “with the wonderful task, now very simple in a digital world, of making a coherent backing and then combining and switching between the various solos to create the “duets” that you now hear”.
Side A:
I Advance Masked
Under Bridges Of Silence
China – Yellow Leader
In The Cloud Forest
New Marimba
Girl On A Swing
Side B:
Hardy Country
The Truth Of Skies
Painting And Dance
Still Point
Lakeland / Aquarelle
Seven On Seven
Stultified
Entropy Pulse (Previously Unreleased)
Skyline (Previously Unreleased)
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