Search - Fripp & Eno :: Fripp & Eno: The Equatorial Stars

A superb return to collaboration.

Michael Stack | North Chelmsford, MA USA | 05/27/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"In many ways, this album is everything one would have expected-- somehow the natural successor to "No Pussyfooting" and "Evening Star". In other ways, its nothing like I would have expected-- the usual stamps of Fripp and Eno's recent work seems to be missing.



Its really quite hard to largely identify the identity of the musician generating the sound on much of this material, there's obvious stuff (we'll come to that in a minute), but as a rule, the backgrounds could be either of them. Sonically, it moves through a number of backdrops, with delicate, percussive, synthish loops dominating the early part of the record ("Meissa", "Lyra", "Tarazed"), wheras the middle of the record feels more like their old collaborations updated, the sort of modern Fripp soundscapes being more apparent ("Lupus", "Ankaa"). The remainder of the album features on track that is totally unexpected, the downright funky "Altair", with its train shuffling rhythms, drum loops, and funky guitar (in ways similar to material from the Eno/Schwaum "Drawn from Life" record), and the closer, "Terebellum", is an aggressive, haunting, and almost angry sounding piece almost reminiscent of "Radiophonics" or the other more aggressive soundscapes.



Over this material, Fripp largely solos using a variant of his legendary fuzz tone-- its a bit mellower, and rounder though, similar to his leads on "Starless" and "The Power to Believe Part II" but in a more hushed feel.



So that tells not much, the real question is, what's it like? Largely an ambient affair, the collaboration is what you'd expect-- there's no real incindiery moments here-- don't look for a "Baby's On Fire", but it is comparable to their previous collaborations in quality, and it certainly sounds nothing like Crimson. Some of it is full of delicate beauty ("Lyra"), some of its just a blast ("Altair"), some of its actually quite hard to listen to at all ("Terebellum").



For fans of ambient music, especially the work of these two gentelemen, this one will be quite rewarding. It falls short somehow of being a masterpiece, but it is really a great record. Recommended."

A Welcome Reunion

William Scalzo | Niagara Falls, NY | 10/02/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Thirty years after their two groundbreaking ambient albums, No Pussyfooting and Evening Star, Fripp and Eno recorded this long-awaited sequel. As one can guess from the CD and track titles, the soundscapes this time around are meant to evoke outer-space and alien lands. But don't mistake this for space-rock, or any kind of rock for that matter. Fripp's own soundscapes of late have tended to be harsh and dissonant, but here he and Eno return to the archetypal earlier sound with Fripp's free-form, legato guitar lines stretching out over Eno's deep, mysterious atmospheres.



Any track-by-track commentary on this type of recording would be redundant, so suffice it to say that fans of the duo's 70's collaborations will find The Equatorial Stars to be a perfect companion to No Pussyfooting and Evening Star. Superior ambient music by two of the masters of the genre."

Back in form, and brilliantly.

Tom Furgas | Youngstown, OH United States | 07/31/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Whoosh! It's been, wha...30 years since the wonderful two LP's "No Pussyfooting" and "Evening Star" by this pathbreaking duo of Fripp and Eno. Since then we have long hoped for more...more...from these two incredible genii of ambient-electronic music. Well, in 1994 Caroline released "The Essential Fripp And Eno" which had both LP's except for some reason they left out Side 2 of "Evening Star", "An Index Of Metals", but included 4 new tracks "Healthy Colours". Nice stuff, but not what we'd've expected. Anyhoo...here's a wonderful new selection of seven mid-size (5-9 minute) tracks of very atmospheric guitar-synthesizer, sampled synth, who-knows-what-studio-wizardry. Fripp proves to be still a very formidable guitarist, playing meltingly beautiful solos over Eno's very advanced and gorgeous electronic backings. Two tracks have notably catchy backbeats, but the others are mostly airy-ambient cloud-musics of beautiful depth and range. Let us hope that these two top-notch brilliant British musicians don't wait another 30 years to add another chapter to their output!

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