King Crimson: Starless – 40th Anniversary Series (1974) [Blu-ray]

Limited to a single pressing run, Starless offers an in-depth overview of King Crimson's celebrated mid-1970's live line-up at its most exploratory. Few bands have offered as much variety in material from night to night, and King Crimson's propensity for improvisation and fondness for playing its newest material - often unreleased on record at the time of performance - is legendary.
Autumn 1973: As King Crimson's second lengthy US tour of that year was coming to a close, a short series of UK concerts for the end of October, followed by a more extensive European tour in November was already planned. Three of these concerts Glasgow, Zurich and Amsterdam were recorded as full multi-track recordings, with material from the Amsterdam show being used as core material for the January 1974 recording of Starless And Bible Black.

From mid-March to the start of April, the band was on the road in Europe again, promoting the album with their final European concerts of the decade, prior to undertaking a further US tour. A number of these concerts were recorded on stereo reel to reel machines, fed directly from the signal as sent to the PA system on the night of the performance. These soundboards are often referred to as The Blue Tapes, named after the outer colour of the original tape boxes and are especially valued for both the quality of recording and performance.

Starless offers 18 CDs of live concert performances - 7 of them mixed from the 1973 multi-track tapes. A further 11 present the complete run of The Blue Tapes for the first time. CDs of the ORTF Paris TV performance and the 2011 stereo mix of Starless And Bible Black also feature. Two DVD-A discs and two Blu-Ray discs contain concert and studio recordings in stereo, quadraphonic and full 5.1 surround sound - all in high-resolution audio.

Disc 23, BD 1
Audio Content
LPCM Stereo (24/192) / DTS-HD Master Audio

Apollo Theatre, Glasgow, UK, October 23, 1973:
1 Walk On
2 Improv: Sharks’ Lungs In Lemsip
3 Larks’ Tongues In Aspic (Part I)
4 Book Of Saturday
5 Easy Money
6 Improv: We'll Let You Know
7 The Night Watch
8 Improv: Tight Scrummy
9 Improv: Loose Scrummy
10 The Talking Drum
11 Larks’ Tongues In Aspic (Part II)
12 Peace - A Theme
13 Cat Food

Volkshaus, Zurich, Switzerland, November 15, 1973:
1 Walk On: No Pussyfooting
2 Improv: Some Pussyfooting
3 Larks' Tongues In Aspic: Part I
4 RF Announcement
5 Lament
6 Peace: A Theme
7 Cat Food
8 Fracture
9 The Law Of Maximum Distress: Part I
10 Improv: The Mincer
11 The Law Of Maximum Distress: Part II
12 Easy Money
13 Exiles
14 Improv: Some More Pussyfooting
15 The Talking Drum
16 Larks’ Tongues In Aspic (Part II)
17 21st Century Schizoid Man

LPCM Stereo (24/96), DTS-HD Master Audio
Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 23, 1973. 2014 Stereo Mix by Steven Wilson:
1 Easy Money
2 Lament
3 Book Of Saturday
4 RF Announcement
5 Fracture
6 The Night Watch
7 Improv: Starless And Bible Black
8 The Great Deceiver
9 Exiles
10 Improv: The Fright Watch
11 The Talking Drum
12 Larks’ Tongues In Aspic (Part II)
13 21st Century Schizoid Man

Additional material:
- Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Netherlands 1974 Stereo Mix by George Chkiantz:
1 Easy Money
2 Lament
3 Book Of Saturday
4 Exiles
5 Improv: The Fright Watch
6 The Talking Drum
7 Larks’ Tongues In Aspic (Part II)
8 21st Century Schizoid Man

Disc 24 BD 2
Audio Content
DTS-HD Master Surround / LPCM 5.1 Surround / LPCM Stereo (24/96)

Starless And Bible Black
5.1 Surround Mix
2011 Stereo Mix
Original Stereo Mix
Original UK Vinyl Transfer

1 The Great Deceiver
2 Lament
3 We’ll Let You Know
4 The Night Watch
5 Trio
6 The Mincer
7 Starless And Bible Black
8 Fracture

5.1 Surround and 2011 Stereo mixed and produced from the original multitrack tapes by Steven Wilson and Robert Fripp except 'Trio' & 'The Mincer' * upmixed to 5.1 from the original stereo masters by Simon Heyworth and Robert Fripp, and taken from 30th anniversary edition for the 2011 stereo edition. Original stereo mix produced by King Crimson, mastered by Simon Heyworth and Robert Fripp.

LPCM Stereo (24/48)
Additional tracks
1 The Night Watch (Single edit - stereo)
2 The Night Watch (US radio single edit - mono)
3 30 second radio advert
4 60 second radio advert

1 Produced by King Crimson.
2 Reduced to mono without knowledge of or reference to the band

The surround performances on this disc are a mixture of 5.1, 4.1 & 4.0 configurations. If no audio is heard from centre channel this is by design, and not caused by a faulty disc.

DTS-HD Master Surround / LPCM Surround / LPCM Stereo (24/96)
Elzer Hof, Mainz, Germany, March 30, 1974:
1 Walk On: No Pussyfooting
2 Improv: The Savage
3 Doctor Diamond
4 Improv: Arabica
5 Exiles
6 Improv: Atria
7 The Night Watch
8 Starless
9 Lament
10 Improv: Trio
11 Easy Money
12 Fracture (fragment)
Mixed from several source tapes by David Singleton at DGM (2014).

Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 23, 1973:
1 Easy Money
2 Improv: Starless And Bible Black
3 Exiles
4 Improv: The Fright Watch
5 The Talking Drum
6 Larks’ Tongues In Aspic (Part II)
7 21st Century Schizoid Man
Mixed & produced from the original multitrack tapes by Steven Wilson (2014)

Stanley Theatre, Pittsburgh, USA, April 29, 1974:
1 The Great Deceiver
2 Lament
3 The Night Watch
4 Starless

Video Content
ORTF T.V, Paris, France, March 22, 1974:
1 Larks’ Tongues In Aspic (Part II)
2 Improv
3 The Night Watch
4 Lament
5 Starless
Central Park, New York, June 25, 1973:
1 Easy Money
2 Fragged Dusty Wall Carpet