King Crimson In The Court Of The Crimson King [40th Anniversary Edition] (box Set) (2009)

In the Court of the Crimson King (subtitled An Observation by King Crimson) is the debut album from the English rock band King Crimson, released on 10 October 1969 on Island Records in England and Atlantic Records in America. The album is one of the first and most influential of the progressive rock genre, where the band largely departed from the blues influences that rock music was founded upon and combined elements of jazz, classical, and symphonic music. The album reached No. 5 on the UK Albums Chart and No. 28 on the US Billboard 200, where it was certified Gold. The album was reissued several times in the 1980s and 1990s using inferior copies of the master tapes. After the masters were located in 2003, a 40th-anniversary edition of the album was released in 2009 with new stereo and 5.1 surround sound mixes by Steven Wilson.

King Crimson opened 1970 scarcely in existence as a band, having lost two key members (Ian McDonald and Michael Giles), with a third (Greg Lake) about to leave. Their second album - largely composed of Robert Fripp's songwriting and material salvaged from their stage repertory ("Pictures of a City" and "The Devil's Triangle") - is actually better produced and better sounding than their first. Surprisingly, Fripp's guitar is not the dominant instrument here: The Mellotron, taken over by Fripp after McDonald's departure - and played even better than before - still remains the band's signature. The record doesn't tread enough new ground to precisely rival In the Court of the Crimson King. Fripp, however, has made an impressive show of transmuting material that worked on stage ("Mars" aka "The Devil's Triangle") into viable studio creations, and "Cadence and Cascade" may be the prettiest song the group ever cut…

Released in December 1970, King Crimson's third studio album, Lizard, is often viewed as an outlier in the pioneering British prog outfit's nearly half-century discography. It's not easily grouped with 1969's stunning In the Court of the Crimson King debut and 1970 follow-up In the Wake of Poseidon, and along with 1971's Islands it's considered a transitional release on the band's path toward the relative stability of the Larks' Tongues in Aspic (1973), Starless and Bible Black (1974), and Red (1974) trilogy. Plus, the Lizard sessions were difficult and the core group lineup acrimoniously collapsed immediately afterward, as bandleader/guitarist Robert Fripp, with lyricist Peter Sinfield, continued brave efforts to save King Crimson from disintegrating as the group's lengthy history was just getting underway…

Guitar wizard Robert Fripp joins forces with some of the finest six-string pickers around, offering up a truly intricate variety of music on Show of Hands. With 17 guitarists contributing to 19 tracks, the likes of Trey Gunn, Paul Richards, and Curt Golden (just to name a few) decorate the album with elaborate string arrangements that range from avant-garde to classical in nature. Anyone who is a guitar enthusiast will be astonished at how tight Fripp comes across with his unique style. From time to time, vocalist Patricia Leavitt displays her beautiful falsetto voice a cappella for a fresh change of pace. The music is shaped, bent, and twisted with guitar atop guitar to culminate thick layers of movements, suites, and passages…

Guitar wizard Robert Fripp joins forces with some of the finest six-string pickers around, offering up a truly intricate variety of music on Show of Hands. With 17 guitarists contributing to 19 tracks, the likes of Trey Gunn, Paul Richards, and Curt Golden (just to name a few) decorate the album with elaborate string arrangements that range from avant-garde to classical in nature. Anyone who is a guitar enthusiast will be astonished at how tight Fripp comes across with his unique style. From time to time, vocalist Patricia Leavitt displays her beautiful falsetto voice a cappella for a fresh change of pace. The music is shaped, bent, and twisted with guitar atop guitar to culminate thick layers of movements, suites, and passages…

The complete audio history of one of the most important debut albums of all time is presented across 26 discs in this boxed set. Featuring a new Dolby Atmos mix by Steven Wilson, 6 CDs' worth of session material on CD & Blu-Ray for the first time (fully mixed by David Singleton), a further disc of newly compiled studio material, the box also includes the original studio album, every alternate take known to exist, every mix known to exist, all live recordings known to exist & a selection of pre/Crimson 1968 recordings.