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TUESDAY JANUARY 10 2006 7:00 PM

The Heavenly Music Corporation

Submitted by jonasgrumby

Edited by Dr_Frank

More than 30 years after Robert Fripp and Brian Eno gave birth to modern ambient music with "No Pussyfooting," and over a decade after Eno composed the Windows 95 startup sound, Fripp has sold his solo to Microsoft as well.

Fripp guitar protégé Steve Ball is the group policy manager (and buzzword abuser) for Windows Audio. He summoned his mentor to Redmond recently to lay down a few tracks of bleeping and droning in search of the four or five seconds of sound that will define Windows Vista for years to come. For those who don't disable system sounds on the new OS, at least...

Microsoft's Channel 9 has released a 25-minute video of this recording session for those who can't resist the exciting audiovisual combination of formless music with a guy sitting on a stool with his guitar in the dark.

Robert Fripp was on the Microsoft campus a few weeks back. He's the famous guitarist and composer, known for his founding role in the band King Crimson. Charles Torre (a big King Crimson fan) was invited over by Steve Ball to film the session.

Metal fans take note: you wouldn't be able to guess from his Windows recording session, but Fripp can shred with the best.

Comments

RepairmanJack

Cleveland, OH

November 2003

JAN 10, 2006 09:01 PM

I had the privilege of seeing Fripp in a solo concert last year and have to say he is one of the best guitarists in the world. I have talked to a number of KC fans who are all excited at the thought of Fripp being immortalized in Windows

[Edited on Jan 10, 2006 9:34PM]

WelnTaod

Portland, OR

September 2003

JAN 10, 2006 09:39 PM

My flaming inner-Fripp geek doesn't know how to handle this other than immediate speed to the linked site, download and covet the reported video! It seems I've a reason to finally thank Microsoft for something...

billyfivecrows

Roswell, GA

July 2005

JAN 10, 2006 09:45 PM

MAN! Cool.

That's all I've got to say about that...

Mercie

SUICIDEGIRL

Maryland, USA

JAN 10, 2006 10:55 PM

holy crap, I didn't know Eno wrote that little ditty. neat.

jonasgrumby

Alexandria, VA

April 2004

JAN 10, 2006 11:05 PM

Mercie said:
holy crap, I didn't know Eno wrote that little ditty. neat.

From the horse's mouth:

Q: How did you come to compose "The Microsoft Sound''?

A: The idea came up at the time when I was completely bereft of ideas. I'd been working on my own music for a while and was quite lost, actually. And I really appreciated someone coming along and saying, "Here's a specific problem -- solve it.''

The thing from the agency said, "We want a piece of music that is inspiring, universal, blah- blah, da-da-da, optimistic, futuristic, sentimental, emotional,'' this whole list of adjectives, and then at the bottom it said "and it must be 3 1/4 seconds long.''

I thought this was so funny and an amazing thought to actually try to make a little piece of music. It's like making a tiny little jewel.

In fact, I made 84 pieces. I got completely into this world of tiny, tiny little pieces of music. I was so sensitive to microseconds at the end of this that it really broke a logjam in my own work. Then when I'd finished that and I went back to working with pieces that were like three minutes long, it seemed like oceans of time.