In recent years, all evidence has pointed toward Robert Fripp drawing a line under King Crimson. They played what was deemed to be their last show in Tokyo in December 2018, with his distance from future Crimson endeavors underlined by Steve Vai taking his place in BEAT as he focuses on his Sunday Lunch adventures with his wife, Toyah.
Now, however, guitarist/vocalist Jakko Jakszyk has blown all those thoughts out of the water by revealing that work on a new album is underway, and that Fripp is involved in the process.
Jakszyk joined the band in 2013, assuming the frontman role previously held by Adrian Belew as Fripp’s progressive-rock heavyweights returned after a five-year hiatus. Jakszyk's legacy with the group since has been written solely on the road, with their last album coming in the form of 2003’s The Power to Believe. That looks set to change.
“It was an amazing thing to have done,” he says of his part in King Crimson’s rich history. “And in a way, part of it's still happening. As we speak, we're doing a King Crimson studio album.”
Interestingly, in his conversation with Goldmine Magazine, he hints that King Crimson may only move forward as a studio-only project.
“When that will come out and what format or how — that's beyond my brief,” he confesses. “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?”
It has also been confirmed that King Crimson's 2021 lineup, which included Tony Levin and Porcupine Tree drummer Gavin Harrison, is returning for the record.
In the interim, Jakszyk’s pre-Crimson work with Robert Fripp — a chance afforded to him after the success of his KC tribute group, the 21st Century Schizoid Band — is set to return to the limelight. The pair, alongside Crimson alumni Tony Levin, Porcupine Tree drummer Gavin Harrison and saxophonist Mel Collins, released A Scarcity of Miracles in 2011. Despite its clear ties to the band, it was merely labelled as "a King Crimson ProjeKct" rather than an official release.
“There's a version of it that's about to come out with loads and loads of extra stuff,” the guitarist reveals. “Because of the nature of how we made that record, there's lots of improvisation and seriously alternate versions of things that we didn't release.
“There also are plans for some live film of us playing in various places. There's an ongoing thread. Whether that ever means we'll ever play live again, I don't know, especially after Robert's recent illness.”
Fripp is currently recovering from a heart attack, which he suffered earlier this year in Italy. That saw him rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery. Though the operation was a success – he’s already back in action in his kitchen with Toyah — there appears to be an understandable reluctance to pile onto a tour bus any time soon.
Meanwhile, Jakszyk has revealed what it’s like to work alongside Fripp behind the scenes, and what happens when you try to dampen his tough-guy image.
He released a new solo album, Son of Glen, back in June with the assistance of his guitar-playing wife, Louise Patricia Crane. It arrived, he tells Prog, after a difficult post-Crimson period.
“After King Crimson ended in 2021, there was a kind of inertia,” he recalls. “I’d written the book [his autobiography, Who's the Boy with the Lovely Hair?], but I’d lost confidence musically somehow; like, ‘Who the fuck am I now?’ Louise built me back up.
“It’s definitely the proggiest thing I’ve done,” he continues. “But I didn’t want to just write a ‘prog’ album — I let whatever came out of my head come out.”
With his mojo back and Fripp’s thoughts returning to the band he formed in 1968, what would be the band's 14th album, and the first in over 20 years, is a welcome prospect.
