All these boxes, our musical history, Dylan is curated Louvre-like, Young’s pasttime a source of nearly constant revelation, and the Beatles in ridiculously applauded mono (understandable nevertheless), not less impressive new stereo mixes, awesome sensurround, too, in parts at least, when being lost in their pioneering video footage just released for the first time. Look deeply at the lover’s carousel of George Harrison’s „Something“, and you’ll see time running playfully through their and our faces. Falling apart, mostly without grand gestures. The castles in our minds. What a box, full of windows.
Now, living in the boxes, a treasure grove of Steven Wilson – I don’t like any of his post-prog-rock-outings since the Porcupine Tree, but I highly appreciate his way to handle prog rock’s history with unsurpassable sensurround versions from Caravan to Jethro Tull, from XTC to King Crimson. Long list. Even found pleasure in Gentle Giant’s „Octopus“ – much more sophisticated stuff than the pseudo mysticism of „Yes“, so I’m probably not deceived by the magician’s mixing desk.
And now the question of all questions, a few lines later. It makes so much sense to deliver 5:1-mixes of great prog rock albums, if you’re just not adding anything to the material and just open up a greater space for all the sounds on 8, 16, 32 tracks. The gain of details, the immersive listening.
King Crimson’s new THRAK BOX is a stone cold killer, and Robert Fripp is a good friend of Brian Eno, the man on the other side of the sprectre, with his classics of the ambient canon. On the first edition of ON LAND, Eno described a simple operation to get a surround sound with a tiny little third speaker of your own choice, really primitive, no high-end, but it worked, and you were surrounded by the Lizard Point-atmospheres from three sides.
Now, after all these years, why not giving these ambient masterpieces the ultimate 5:1-high fidelity, for god’s sake? MUSIC FOR AIRPORTS, MUSIC FOR FILMS, THE SHUTOV ASSEMBLY should make a great second step, but the first Eno sensurround experience outside his installations should be pure seduction, the 5:1-version of ANOTHER GREEN WORLD, where ambient and song are all one. „Santiago, under the volcano, / Floats like a cushion on the sea. / Yet I can never sleep here / Everything ponders in the night.“