Frippertronics is an analogue delay system consisting of two side-by-side reel-to-reel tape recorders. The machines are configured so that the tape travels from the supply reel of the first machine to the take-up reel of the second, allowing sound recorded by the first machine to be played back on the second machine. The audio of the second machine is then routed back to the first, causing the delayed signal to repeat, while new audio is mixed in with it. The length of the delay is controlled by the distance between the two machines, and the number of repeats is controlled by the volume on the second machine. Fripp used this technique to dynamically create recordings containing layer upon layer of electric guitar sounds in a real time fashion. An added advantage was that, by nature of the technique, the complete performances were recorded in their entirety on the original looped tape.
Origin of the term
The term "Frippertronics" was coined around May 1977 by poet Joanna Walton, Fripp's girlfriend at the time, for a performance they planned to do together at The Kitchen performing arts space.
The ''(No Pussyfooting)'' recordings
Fripp had first used the technique when Brian Eno introduced him to it in Eno's home studio, combining Fripp's guitar performance with the two-machine tape delay, on the 21-minute piece "The Heavenly Music Corporation" recorded on 8 September 1972 and released on the Fripp & Eno album in 1973. A subsequent Fripp & Eno album, Evening Star, was released in 1975. These recordings were not purely tape loops however, since some after-the-fact processing, overdubbing, and editing were done. The delay system was first used in live situations for a short European Fripp & Eno tour in May–June 1975 promoting Evening Star, with the 28 May 1975 concert at the ParisOlympia Theatre being bootlegged as Air Structures. After returning from this tour Eno released his own version of the open loop tape system with Discreet Music, one side of which features looping. Eno mentions in the liner notes that "here is the long delay echo system with which I have experimented since I became aware of the musical possibilities of tape recorders in 1964."
Frippertronics and its types
Frippertronics was later expanded to different situations. In what he called "Pure Frippertronics", Fripp created loops in real time without additional editing. Sometimes he rewound the recorded tape, to be played back while improvising a guitar soloon top of it. Fripp used this type of Frippertronics to perform live solo concerts in small, informal venues. It allowed him to be what he referred to as a "small, mobile, intelligent unit", as opposed to being part of a massive rock concert touring company. One such show was in a room at Faunce House at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, in a venue built to be a tiered classroom. Only one and a half albums of Pure Frippertronics were officially produced: Side A of God Save the Queen/Under Heavy Manners in 1980; God Save The Queen was the pure Frippertronics side, containing three compositions; Red Two Scorer, God Save The Queen, and 1983. He then produced Let the Power Fall in 1981, which takes up where God Save The Queen left off, with works entitled 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988 and 1989. Marriagemusic was the B side of a League Of Gentlemen single; it is clocking in at over 11 minutes. Additionally Fripp made available an audience bootleg recording of a live Frippertronics concert as an MP3 download, available on the Discipline Global Mobile web page. There is also a 2-LP bootleg of live Frippertronics entitled Pleasures In Pieces recorded at The Kitchen in New York City on 5 February 1978, containing five tracks.
In the mid-1990s, Fripp revamped the Frippertronics concept into "Soundscapes", which dramatically expanded the flexibility of the method by using digital technology.
A "loop station" is a modern commercial effects device that uses digital delay channels to approximate the original Frippertronics analog delay chains. Examples include:
