Islands (King Crimson Album)

Iceland
King Crimson's studio album
Publication (s)	1971
Label (s)	EG Records ( Virgin )
Format (s)	LP, CD
Genre (s)	Progressive rock
Title (number)	6th
running time	44 min 8 s
occupation	Robert Fripp - guitar, Mellotron , "Peter's Pedal Harmonium", various Mel Collins - flute , bass flute , saxophone , vocals Boz Burrell - bass , vocals Ian Wallace - drums , percussion , vocals Peter Sinfield - texts, sounds and visuals Keith Tippett - piano Paulina Lucas - soprano Robin Miller - oboe Mark Charig - Cornet Harry Miller - double bass
production	Robert Fripp, Peter Sinfield
chronology Lizard (1970) Iceland Larks' Tongues in Aspic (1973)

Islands is the fourth studio album by the English progressive rock band King Crimson . It was released in 1971 by EG-Records LTD ( Virgin ).

History of origin

Singer and bassist Boz Burrell and drummer Ian Wallace joined the band in advance. Since King Crimson did not have a bass player at the time, Robert Fripp decided that Burrell should learn to play the bass. Islands was recorded while on tour. It was also the last album on which Keith Tippett was involved. After the recordings, Peter Sinfield also left the band, he was the only founding member besides Fripp who was still in the band.

The cover shows a photo of the Trifid Nebula .

Music genre

Islands is considered to be the last album of the band's first creative period. The style that has been tried and tested to date is broken on the albums following Iceland, while the references to the previous albums are clear.

The instrumentation is rich and (for rock music) rather unusual. a. to hear various wind instruments, a double bass and a string quartet.

It is varied between a slow, harmonious pace with gentle singing (parts of Formentera Lady and above all the title song Islands ) and more violent, sometimes hard, sometimes jazzy , sometimes improvised- sounding pieces, with many rhythmic experiments taking place.

successes

The album peaked at # 30 on the UK charts and # 76 on the US Billboard charts.

Track list

1. Formentera Lady - 10:15
2. Sailor's Tale - 7:34
3. The Letters - 4:32
4. Ladies of the Road - 5:34
5. Prelude: Song of the Gulls - 4:15
6. Islands - 11:54

Trivia

The Letters is based on the piece Drop In , which was played at concerts by King Crimson back in 1969.

The basic motif of Song of Gulls comes from the pre-King Crimson era, when Robert Fripp was still traveling as a trio with Michael and Peter Giles . The piece on which the song is based is originally called Suite No. 1 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.everyhit.com/
2. ↑ The album on the Billboard 200 at Allmusic (English)

Web links

• Reviews of Islands on the baby blue pages
• Islands at Allmusic (English)