Toyah & Fripp - The Lady or the Tiger 1986

Toyah & Fripp - The Lady or the Tiger 1986
Studio Recordings @192
Out of Print

Toyah Wilcox (voice)
Robert Fripp (frippertronics, guitar)

Featuring:

The League of Crafty Guitarists:
Terry Blankenship, Roy Capellaro, Jon Diaz, John Durso, Andrew Essex, Tony Geballe, Claude Gillet, Curt Golden, Mike Gorman, Trey Gunn, Brian Helm, James Hines III, Danny Howes, John Miley, John Novak and Mark Tomacci (more guitars)

*Original Notes
This is certainly a fairly difficult album, and surprisingly one of Fripp's most inaccessible.

The main reason for that is probably Toyah's involvement. She recites an old story called - you guessed it - "The Lady Or The Tiger?", written by Frank R. Stockton in 1882 on Side 1 and a followup called "The Discourager Of Hesitancy - A Continuation Of The Lady Or The Tiger", also by Stockton, on Side 2.

Fripp handles all the music on Side 1 and it's basically the middle-ground between Frippertronics and Soundscapes, whereas Side 2 features the League Of Crafty Guitarists (including Trey Gunn and Tony Geballe) performing The Discourager Of Hesitancy.

Toyah's voice is very soothing and whilst the story itself isn't too fantastic, her recitation coupled with the music has a quality to it that's hard to describe - her voice should be more like an instrument than your main focus.

The Lady Or The Tiger