When I first got involved into this project, I really didn’t have the foggiest idea that members of King Crimson were involved in the album. To know about the involvement of band members Robert Fripp, Ian McDonald and Pat Mastelotto in the album gave me the chills! King Crimson’s music has played an important influence in my work since I was a teenager and I have seen the band play live on several occasions. I can especially remember a unique night at London’s Jazz Cafe in December 1997, watching a mind-blowing improvisation by King Crimson’s Project One. Adrian Belew was sitting at the drums! right in front of me, laughing and nodding at me with funny expressions all the time and making me blush… The music that I heard that very night blew my mind. That night, I felt something similar to watching John Coltrane and Miles Davis play live at a Paris club in the 1950’s.
The scene shows a series of musicians/artists characters migrating and mutating for a better place for their music to survive. I’ve talked to quite a lot of people who lived London’s music scene during the late 1960’s and they all remember about how fast everything changed in the mid 1970’s. By the end of the decade, the music business was not the same anymore: the music press started crucifying artists that were worshiped before, many personal relationships drowned, talented artists suffered from drug addictions… The atmosphere in London changed completely. In this picture I tried to portray a time for survival, to find new ways and new alternatives, to evolve and survive. Many great artists from that era did so and they keep playing live and producing wonderful music!