Robert Fripp & the League of Crafty Guitarists
Live!

After the (apparent) dissolution of Crimson in 1984, the great Robert Fripp dedicated himself to teaching guitar techniques in West Virginia, United States. The idea for this album sprang from those courses. An album that brings together eighteen guitarists performing simultaneously live. The inspiration for Guitar Craft comes from the medieval Guilds of Arts and Crafts. G. Craft is a way of creating a relationship with the guitar and music, but most importantly, with oneself. In this way, it is possible, when music becomes available and one possesses musical skills, to respond positively so that music "flows through" the musician and makes them play. When silence arrives, music is very close.
The guitars used are Ovation (Shallowbody Cutaway n.1867). Ovations (manufactured by Mr. Kaman) utilize the same technology used to create helicopter blades. The Shallowbody is an instrument extremely different from both classical and acoustic guitars. In the 19th century, research on guitars discovered that acoustics were governed at least 90% by the top of the instrument and not the body. Therefore, the fiberglass of the Ovation influences the sound only to a certain extent. The Ovation is not tuned in the traditional way but in C, G, D, A, E, G, from the sixth to the first string, all intervals of fifths except the first, a third. The sound is extremely crystalline, and the tuning is practically perfect with a particularly powerful pick-up.

The album consists of eleven tracks, all endowed with extreme depth and melancholy, at times nervous, and in some cases slightly challenging to listen to. It's hard to describe them exhaustively. Noteworthy is a magnificent solo of Frippertronics (later evolved into Soundscapes) in the track "The New World". It should not be forgotten that Trey Gunn, who would later become a member of the subsequent incarnations of King Crimson in the '90s and '00s, also appears in this Guitar Craft.

In conclusion, an important album containing brilliant ideas that would later be developed and improved in subsequent albums, particularly in the wonderful Intergalactic Boogie Express - Live In Europe 1991. A mention should be made for the modest cover where the shadowed side of Fripp is the left one (though it's the one closest to the heart).