THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Red was released on Oct. 6, 2024. In celebration of the 50th anniversary of this classic album, King Crimson have released a Deluxe Edition that features completely new Dolby Atmos, 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio Surround and stereo mixes by Steven Wilson, taking the music to new levels of clarity and power.
Red was one of the earliest mixes undertaken by Wilson in 2009, and King Crimson were the first of a number of classic band’s and artists to be mixed by Steven, so it’s entirely appropriate that he return, some 15 years later, to take the album into the Dolby Atmos era. “What I hear on Red is the best representation of the ’72-’74 era lineup in the studio,” says Wilson. “In effect, this is a power trio record — and their sound is just huge.”
Also featured are a complete album’s worth of Elemental Mixes by long-time King Crimson producer (and band manager) David Singleton. Using the original multi-track recordings to present a very different audio picture of the album, these versions feature greater separation of instruments — and utilize many recorded elements recorded for (but not included in) the original mixes. As King Crimson biographer Sid Smith puts it in the set’s liner notes: “David Singleton’s Elemental Mixes pull the veil aside on the original sessions and act as a kind of alternative account, a Red that could have been, revealing the different passes and takes that the band undertook… as they engaged with the material.” Multiple new-to-disc tracks and studio takes — representing all material to survive from the recording sessions — have also been mixed and/or mastered for inclusion, making this the most comprehensive overview of the album to be released.
Red was recorded immediately after King Crimson’s final U.S. tour of 1974 and the anniversary edition reflects that by including all three hi-res stereo mixes of the live album USA in its full-concert version. Also included are a quintet of restored bootlegs being issued on disc for the first time, alongside a bootleg of the band’s final U.S. concert in New York in 1974, which Robert Fripp claimed was: “the first gig since the 1969 Crimson where the bottom of my spine registered ‘out of this world’ to the same degree.”
In the decades since its release, Red has gone from being an album that was under-promoted — the band had already split up — to being one of the most lauded albums of its era and (after In The Court of the Crimson King), King Crimson’s biggest-selling album.
By the time King Crimson entered the studio in July ’74, the band had spent the best part of two years on the road, recorded two albums along the way (Larks’ Tongues In Aspic and Starless & Bible Black) and shed two band members en route, with percussionist Jamie Muir quitting in early 1973, and violin/mellotron player David Cross leaving at the end of the U.S. tour just a week prior to the recording of Red.
Crimson had built a reputation as one of the tightest, most powerful bands on the circuit. Recording in Olympic Studios in London, with one improv piece (Providence) drawn from that final U.S. tour — and with contributions from former members and friends on saxophones, violin, and oboe — the group produced the last Crimson studio album of the ’70s and one of the decade’s masterpieces. In the half-century since its release it has built an enviable, enduring reputation among fans and musicians alike — with bands from each succeeding decade citing it as an important influence.
