“Getting excited about the possibility of a new album is somewhat premature.” Robert Fripp and King Crimson are in the studio, but who knows what they're doing — and if we'll ever hear it

Jakko Jakszyk and Robert Fripp
(Image credit: Jakszyk & Fripp: Adam Gasson/Guitarist Magazine/Future)

King Crimson guitarist and vocalist Jakko Jakszyk set the internet on fire this past July 7 when he told Goldmine the band is making a new album for the first time in 22 years.

"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?"

Jakszyk’s reveal was off the mark, according to Crimson manager David Singleton. Yes, Crimson are in the studio, he says, but an album project is not in the works, nor has there been any discussion about issuing what, if anything, comes from the effort.

Singleton released a statement via DGMLive, the website of Discipline Global Mobile (DGM), the record label founded by Fripp and Singleton, in which he makes a reference to late King Crimson drummer Bill Rieflin:

So there is 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.”

— David Singleton

“Addressing the idea of some form of studio recording by the last incarnation of King Crimson, 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 those drummers have now recorded studio versions of their parts — separately, so that there is perfect separation.

“So there is 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. Getting excited about the possibility of a new album, as has apparently been happening, is somewhat premature. Carts before horses.”

Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp at The Isle of Wight Festival 2023

(Image credit: Emma Terracciano / Alamy Stock Photo)

King Crimson’s last studio album was 2003’s The Power to Believe. Extensive live recordings of past performances by Fripp and King Crimson continue to be released by DGM Live.

This isn’t the first time Jakszyk — who plays PRS electric guitars, including a custom PRS P24 model — has spoken out of turn. Shortly after joining Crimson in 2013 — where he replaced long-standing guitarist Adrian Belew — Jakszyk made the mistake of telling Classic Rock magazine what a nice guy Fripp is, earning him a rebuke from the guitarist.

As he recalled to Classic Album Review, he was asked if the notoriously fussy Fripp was difficult to work with.

“I said, ‘Look, all you can do is speak as you find,’” Jakszyk recalled. “And I said, ‘I gotta tell you that Robert has been incredibly supportive and encouraging. He hasn’t been difficult at all. It’s been amazing.’”

Shortly after the interview came out, Jakszyk was called on the rug during a rehearsal.

“Robert said, ‘Jakko, can I have a word, please?’

“And I thought, Oh, fuck…

“He called me over and said, ‘Jakko, I just read your interview with Classic Rock magazine.’ I went ‘Right.’ He said, ‘Yes. In the future, can you stop saying nice things about me? It’s ruining my reputation.’”

Indeed, Fripp — who suffered a heart attack last April and has been recovering — has a reputation as a taskmaster that was decades in the making, aided by interviews in which he gave unflinching assessments of guitarists like Eric Clapton, whose playing he described as “quite banal.”

Time will tell if Jakszyk’s original statement about a new Crimson record had any truth to it.

GuitarPlayer.com editor-in-chief

Christopher Scapelliti is editor-in-chief of GuitarPlayer.com and the former editor of Guitar Player, the world’s longest-running guitar magazine, founded in 1967. In his extensive career, he has authored in-depth interviews with such guitarists as Pete Townshend, Slash, Billy Corgan, Jack White, Elvis Costello and Todd Rundgren, and audio professionals including Beatles engineers Geoff Emerick and Ken Scott. He is the co-author of Guitar Aficionado: The Collections: The Most Famous, Rare, and Valuable Guitars in the World, a founding editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine, and a former editor with Guitar World, Guitar for the Practicing Musician and Maximum Guitar. Apart from guitars, he maintains a collection of more than 30 vintage analog synthesizers.