Did King Crimson vocalist/guitarist Jakko Jakszyk show the cards just a little too early in this never-ending, unpredictable game of King Crimson? Earlier this month while talking with Goldmine about his fantastic new solo album, Son of Glen, Jakko dropped a bit of news revealing that King Crimison was working on a new album.
Jakszyk says, “As we speak, we’re doing a King Crimson studio album. When that will come out and what format or how – that’s beyond my brief. But yeah, we’ve been doing it piecemeal, and then a couple of months ago, the management said, ‘Can we?’ So, yeah. I’ve been recording that with a view to it coming out in some format at some point. But who knows when?”
Like many King Crimson fans, I found this news so fucking exciting that I kicked my chair out from under me and did a happy dance. The dance didn’t last too long though as a few days later, King Crmson manager David Singleton released a statement addressing Jakko’s comments:
“I have seen there have been lots of postings about the possibility of a new King Crimson album following Jakko’s interview. Addressing this very question before he died, Bill Rieflin posed the excellent question, ‘Why make a studio album? There are excellent live recordings of all the songs out there already.'”
“One possible answer would be an album the very sound of which no one has ever heard before. A sound driven by the three drummers. And it is true that those drummers have now recorded studio versions of their parts – separately, so that there is perfect separation.”
Singleton continued, confirming something is in the works, but warning people about getting too excited:
“So there is indeed the seed of a new recording. Whether it is an album, whether it sees the light of day, whether it is something else is unknown. As is the outcome of any creative process. So yes, recordings have taken place.”
“We are building a new studio, and when it is complete, I am looking forward to seeing what may, or may not, exist. Getting excited about the possibility of a new album, as has been happening in some quarters, is however, somewhat premature. Carts before horses.”
King Crimson’s “Farewell Tour” came to a close as the band performed it’s final performance on December 8, 2021 in Tokyo at the Shibuya Bunkamura Orchard Hall. The last song played was “Starless”, and the final note of the song marked the end of their “completion tour” in Japan. The band’s leader, Robert Fripp, described the moment as moving “from sound to silence”
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