To celebrate the "King"

Progressive-rock - Markus Reuter of the Crimson ProjeKCt on cultivating tradition in rock music.

Mainz - The English band King Crimson has existed since the end of the 60s and, having attained an undisputed cult status, has been the nucleus of the progressive rock movement to this day. In 2011, a few band members launched a six-headed offshoot: The Crimson ProjeKCt. Their German guitar player Markus Reuter tells us what awaits the audience next Sunday at the Frankfurter Hof.

Interview conducted by André de Vos

The performance of the Crimson ProjeKCt includes 3 bands. Can you break that down for us?

The complete The Crimson ProjeKCt show is a 3 hour show where the bands Stick Men and the Adrian Belew Power Trio each play for about 30 to 40 minutes and we also play some King Crimson tracks during our sets. At the end we all play together for about an hour and a half. We present King Crimson material of the 80s and 90s as well as some tracks from the 70s.

Does The Crimson ProjeKCt show how a band like King Crimson is developing dynamically, no matter who plays in the band at that time?

You are right, but in fact with The Crimson ProjeKCt it is so that we did not write new material yet. I would agree completely if The Crimson ProjeKCt had written new material. At the moment it is really a celebration of King Crimson music.

What does "celebration" mean in this context?

The interesting thing is that it does not feel like a cover band and it isn´t a "tribute" band either because original members are involved. Adrian Belew wrote most of the material for King Crimson back in the 80s. And so it doesn’t feel like a cover-band but more like – it’s a stupid word - a party. So it is more a celebration of these pieces, and actually in a more relaxed way, than it was played when Robert Fripp was in the band.

How did you come to be part of The Crimson ProjeKCt? How did that connection happen?

There are two explanations. One is that I have this trio, Stick Men, with bass player Tony Levin and drummer Pat Mastelotto, the other is that when Robert Fripp did not want to go on tour for the last ten years, I was available when Adrian wanted to do a birthday tour for the “Discipline” album from 1981.

Besides that, as a student of Robert Fripp, were you somehow predestined for this job?

At a concert in 1991 I found a flyer for his guitar school and just a few months later I took part in a course with him. All in all I spent seven years with him and also adopted his teachings. The good and interesting thing is that he directly passed to me the way this music is intended to be played and how it should sound and how your inner approach should be for it to sound right.

What does the music of Stick Men contain in relation to The Crimson ProjeKCt?

We play material from our last album “Deep”. It’s music that is very clearly in the tradition of King Crimson, but new material and in a Power Trio format: a small group but with a lot going on musically. We also improvise and play Igor Stravinsky’s “Firebird”, which has by now become a “live hit”.

Note: This interview was originally published in "Allgemeine Zeitung" (March/2014).
Translated by Lutz Stahlhofen with revisions by Tobias Reber. (thank you, guys!)