Musical Guide to Larks' Tongues in Aspic by King Crimson Andrew Keeling 2010.



An informative, insightful guide to the secret mechanics that power the mysterious music of King Crimson. It is generously illustrated with photographs and musical notation diagrams. This is a scholastic yet accessible work. Andrew Keeling's credentials as composer and academic are impeccable. He holds a PhD from the University of Manchester and has works published by Faber in the UK and PRB in the USA. His musical compositions have been performed, recorded and broadcast throughout the world. This guide takes you through all the complexities of the music, stripping away layer after layer to reveal the inner workings of the exquisite machinery of harmony, counterpoint and rhythm that, seemingly so effortlessly, go together to make: "Larks' Tongues in Aspic".


Since its original publication in 2010, much has happened in the court of King Crimson - such as the untimely death of John Wetton - and this updated 2023 edition of Musical Guide to Larks' Tongues in Aspic coincides with the 50th anniversary of the release of the album in 1973. It has been revised with a new Foreword, an interview with Richard Palmer-James and an Appendix overviewing the musical parameters of King Crimson MK III 'live'.


"This is a distinctively personal, affectionate but utterly convincing musical analysis and it is a ground-breaking piece of musicology." David Cross.


Andrew Keeling's association with King Crimson goes back to 1969 when he first heard In the Court of the Crimson King. He is a composer and musician and has a PhD from the University of Manchester. His orchestrations of Robert Fripp's Soundscapes were performed by the Metropole Orchestra in Amsterdam in 2003, released as The Wine of Silence (DGM/Panegyric) in 2012 and, as a flautist, he formed an improvisation duo with former King Crimson violinist David Cross, releasing October is Marigold (2022). Keeling's recent compositions include Northern Soul (2017) for In Echo, Chamber Symphony 'Emerald' (2020) for Chethams School of Music and Piano Quintet - The World's Wound (2022) for Ricardo Odriozola.