Exposure (Robert Fripp album)

Exposure is the debut solo album by guitarist and composer Robert Fripp. Unique among Fripp solo projects for its focus on the pop song format, it grew out of his previous collaborations with David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, and Daryl Hall, and the latter two singers appear on the album. Released in 1979, it peaked at No. 79 on the Billboard Album Chart. Most of the lyrics were provided by the poet and lyricist Joanna Walton, who also coined the term "Frippertronics" to describe Fripp's tape looping techniques.

After terminating the first run of King Crimson in 1974, studying at the International Academy for Continuous Education through 1975 1976 and assisting Peter Gabriel in both studio and stage capacities, Fripp moved in 1977 to the Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood of New York City. New York was then a centre of punk rock and what would come to be known as new wave, and Fripp became part of the scene, playing and recording with Blondie and the Roche sisters, absorbing the sounds of the active downtown music scene. He envisioned a new approach, and incorporated elements of these NYC experiences into his current palette, including "Frippertronics", the tape delay/looping technique he had developed with Brian Eno. At Eno's invitation, Fripp performed on David Bowie's "Heroes" single and album in 1977. Originally, Fripp envisioned Exposure as the third part of a simultaneous trilogy also comprising Daryl Hall's Sacred Songs and Peter Gabriel's second album aka Scratch, both of which Fripp contributed to and produced. Fripp's aim with the trilogy "was to investigate the 'pop song' as a means of expression. I think it's an incredibly good way of putting forward ideas. I think it's a supreme discipline to know that you have three to four minutes to get together all your lost emotions and find words of one syllable or less to put forward all your ideas. It's a discipline of form that I don't think is cheap or shoddy". The album was to be originally titled The Last Great New York Heartthrob, feature a track list configuration different from that of the final release, and use Daryl Hall as the main vocalist. Fripp instead used only two Hall vocals on his album, substituting Peter Hammill and Terre Roche in various places. The trilogy did not work out as intended, although all the albums were released. "Urban Landscape" appears on the Hall album, as does "NYCNY" ("I May Not Have Had Enough of Me but I've Had Enough of You", with different lyrics written by Hall). The Gabriel record also features a version of "Exposure". "Here Comes the Flood" had previously appeared with a prog rock arrangement on Gabriel's first album, but Gabriel disliked the production, and created a simpler rendition of the song for Exposure. Fripp stated in the liner notes that Exposure "is indebted to all those who took part in the hazardous series of events culminating in this record, and several who do not appear but who helped determine the final shape: Tim Cappella, Alirio Lima, Ian McDonald and John Wetton". The version of the album that was released, after the changes and compromises that had to be made, was reconceptualized as part of a new trilogy, "The Drive to 1981", marking the beginning of three year campaigns by Fripp as a professional musician, which would include an album of Frippertronics and one of "Discotronics", to be released between September 1979 and September 1980. Both album concepts were released together as God Save the Queen/Under Heavy Manners, with each concept getting its own followup－The League of Gentlemen for Discotronics and Let the Power Fall for Frippertronics, making for a five step trilogy. The end of The Drive to 1981 marked the beginning of "the incline to 1984", Fripp's tenure with a reformed King Crimson, originally intended as Discipline. Fripp's tour to support Exposure was strictly a solo tour, utilizing only his own electric guitar and Frippertronics, and included then unorthodox rock music venues such as restaurants and retail outlets. A facsimile of that second edition can be created by programming the contents of the second disc as 1 2 3 20 5 21 22 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17. There was also a version of "Water Music II" that ran more than 6 minutes. On the 1985 remix, the vinyl label lists the song at 6:10 while there are CD versions that list the song at 6:24. These are the same. The 6:10 timing on the vinyl remix was in error. Adding further confusion, many CDs that list the song as 6:24 on the track list actually contain the edited 3:52 version. The 6:24 version is on some early CD versions, but since the catalogue numbers are the same, finding one remains problematic. It is not on the 2006 remaster, even though it contains the remixed version (it runs 3:55). In 2022, DGM released Exposures, a massive 32 disc box set (25 compact discs, 3 DVD discs and 4 Blu ray discs) featuring all four versions of Exposure, including a fourth new mix done by Steven Wilson (in stereo, surround sound, and Dolby Atmos variants) as well as related Fripp albums (Let the Power Fall, The League of Gentlemen, God Save the Queen/Under Heavy Manners, all presented in remastered original mixes as well as new Steven Wilson mixes), live recordings, studio outtakes, the complete Frippertronics tape loops from the period between the start of the Exposure/Scratch/Sacred Songs sessions and the reformation of King Crimson for the Discipline album.