Robert Fripp 5: Kneeling At The Shrine

In 1986, Robert Fripp married Toyah Willcox, an actress and singer best known for her outlandish voice and style in both milieus. She already had nine albums under her own name by the time they decided to put a band together. After tapping Crafty Guitarist Trey Gunn on Chapman Stick and drummer Paul Beavis—who must be tired of the jokes by now—for a few short tours, the quartet eventually recorded Kneeling At The Shrine, taking the band name from the first track on the album.

Toyah is the predominant musical force here, as her distinct voice (and we assume lyrics) are firmly in the tradition of edgy New Wave art-pop, somewhere between Siouxsie Sioux and Kate Bush. Still, she should have known that the hook for “If I Were A Man” was already established by Erasure. While there are few echoes of ‘80s Crimson, Fripp fans won’t have to listen too closely for his input, as many of the backings are driven by his picking, with solos here and there as well. (“Strange Girls” has what we could swear are Space Invaders effects under his usual ascending riffs.) “Don’t Take It Away” is a catchy pop song, while the closing “Freedom”—uniquely credited as written by the couple and not the whole band—is still a straightforward, almost conventional-sounding track, even at almost eight minutes.

Nothing more would be heard from Sunday All Over The World, though Toyah and Fripp would go on to be an iconoclastic couple through the decades to follow while pursuing their own individual artistic paths. They are still together today.

Sunday All Over The World Kneeling At The Shrine (1991)—2