Sunday, January 27, 2013

The Night Watch (Live at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, November 23rd 1973) - King Crimson

From the booklet:

"A whole range of listening assumptions has changed since Billy and the Boys banged and clattered in an auditorium now prohibited to rock groups. In 1973 the focal point for any stereo album was the centre, and the ideal place to listen right between the speakers. This was the norm from which all other judgements followed. The knobs on domestic hi-fi equipment were optimistically marked 'treble' and 'bass' (not 'thin' and 'dull') and panning was what critics did to performers. The responsibility for the sound to be heard by listeners (other than professional audients) belonged to the producer / mixer /engineer.
Today, who listens in the centre, live or at home? The majority of a concert audience continue to strain from the sides (as ever), and the common central listening position is on headphones. On contemporary mass-produced sound carriers the listener can re-organise their music with graphic equalisers and choos the venue - hall, church, dance hall or cinema - where they would prefer the music to be played.
This CD is presented to a post-modern world which has abandoned the simple, even simplistic, certainties of the musicians, and probably the audience, of the Concertgebouw on one evening in late 1973. The aim is to present the music of that night so that what was played is available to be heard, albeit in a manner of the listener's choice."

Image taken from Wikipedia

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