Richard Pinhas

French guitarist Richard Pinhas, has always had a big fixation on King Crimson's Robert Fripp. Pinhas's ‘70s band, Heldon, did several homage including the mellotron-laden pastiche "In The Wake Of King Fripp." 25 years and 18 albums later, Pinhas continues the tribute, dedicating a track to Bob and borrowing his layered, looping Frippertronics and slow burn Gibson sound throughout. At least Pinhas is consistent — he also still pursues themes from science fiction, this time in collaboration with cyber-punk writer Maurice Dantec. On five of the eight tracks (and their recent U.S. tour), Dantec reads texts (mostly in French) by cultural theorist Gilles Deleuze and science fiction writer Norman Spinrad. Interestingly enough, both these writers had previously worked with Pinhas, the now-passed Deleuze reading Nietzsche on Heldon's first album Electronique Guérilla (1974) and appearing on Pinhas's solo release L'Ethique (1982). And Spinrad read on Pinhas' second solo album East West (1980) and Cyborg Sally (1994). Plus ça change.