King Crimson's The Elements 2020 Tour Box 2CD Now Available For Pre-order

This 2-CD history of King Crimson features many extracts and tracks appearing on CD for the first time, including many of the current line-up. Packaged in a digi-pack style book case with 24-page booklet, this set contains introductory notes by Robert Fripp & sleeve notes by Sid Smith.

While this 7th release in the Tour Box series is in spirit with the earlier releases, this is also a very different tour box to its companions, and one which, as it has to stand along and represent a tour that should have been (and will occur in 2021), it also stands slightly apart.

What themes and stories should a tour box created for a postponed tour tell?

As with previous tour boxes, the 2020 Elements box covers the full spectrum of Crimsoning, this one with music and line-ups from 1969-2019. Disc one represents a mostly live/mostly new-to-CD selection of material including 4 tracks taken from the 2019 tour. Disc two, in keeping with the theme of Sid's notes, discussed below, presents pieces played occasionally by the current line-up - Exiles and Sheltering Sky, pieces from the studio - both King Crimson and Robert Fripp that were never completed, or were developed in different ways, material that never made it to a studio recording - The Errors, Dr. Diamond, Trees (extract), Guts on my Side, etc, all combine to present a convincing musical counter-history to the band.

The main sleeve notes by KC historian Sid Smith present a series of highly plausible "what if?" scenarios. Starting from 1969. his 2000 word essay traces a counterfactual history of the band had various tours not been canceled or postponed, had various members not quit or joined, following the routes and pathways a band called King Crimson could have followed had things turned out slightly different along the way.

Disc 1

1 Wind Extract
2 I Talk to the Wind (Alt 2019 Mix)
3 Moonchild (Including Cadenzas, Live 23rd Sept 2019) *
4 In the Wake of Poseidon (Greg Lake Isolated Vocal) *
5 Peace A Theme (Live 26th Oct 1973) *
6 Cat Food (Live 26th Oct 1973) *
7 Last Skirmish (Live 10th June 2019) *
8 Prince Rupert's Lament (Alt Take)
9 The Letters (Bill Rieflin isolated, edit section 1) *
10 The Letters (RF Guitars early take, section) *
11 The Letters (Bill Rieflin isolated, edit section 2) *
12 Ladies of the Road (Fripp/Singleton mix)
13 Easy Money (Live 5th Sept 2019) *
14 Fracture (Live 2016, Taken from Live in Vienna)
15 One More Red Nightmare (Live 4th July 2019) *
16 Starless (Mark Charig featured Studio 1974)

*Tracks previously unreleased on CD

Disc 2

1 The Sheltering Sky (Live 18 July 2019) *
2 San Francisco (From Champaign Urbana Rehearsals 1983)
3 Frame By Frame (Jakszyk/Harrison Pre-2019 Tour Demo) *
4 Running DAT 17 (edit) (Rehearsals from THRAK)
5 Exiles (Live June 2017) *
6 North Star (Exposure Rehearsals)
7 Breathless (Live 2018)
8 The Errors (Live 13 Nov 2017)
9 Ian, Boz & Robert (Studio Jam 1971)
10 Disengage (Exposure Rehearsals) *
11 Guts On My Side (Live 19 March 1974)
12 Dr. Diamond (Live 16 June 1973) *
13 21st Century Schizoid Man (Live Detroit 1972)
14 Trees (Extract Live 1969)
15 The Sheltering Scape (Assembled by Alex R Mundy)

*Tracks previously unreleased on CD

Release date September 4, 2020 ~ Pre-order here