Lizard (40th Anniversary Special Edition)

'Lizard' is the third release in the King Crimson 40th anniversary series. The classic album has been mixed for 5.1 Surround Sound from the original studio masters by Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree) & is fully approved by Crimson founder Robert Fripp.

The CD features a completely new stereo album mix by Robert Fripp & Steven Wilson, plus 3 extra tracks, 2 previously unreleased, including a new alternate mix of "Lady of the Dancing Water" by Steven Wilson, the long unavailable "Bolero" remix with Tony Levin on bass (from 'Frame by Frame') & a studio run through of "Cirkus" from the original recording sessions.

DVD-A (compatible with all DVD players & DVD Rom players) features a 5.1 DTS Mix and High Resolution Stereo mixes (24bit/48khz). DVD-A players can, additionally, access a 5.1 Lossless audio mix and Lossless Stereo mixes (24bit 96khz).

The DVD-A features both the original album mix & the new album mix in High Resolution stereo, plus the 3 bonus tracks in High Resolution Stereo.

This edition of 'Lizard' is presented as a 2 x digipack format in a slipcase with new sleeve notes by Robert Fripp & King Crimson biographer Sid Smith along with rare photos & archive material.

Robert Fripp: guitar, mellotron & devices
Mel Collins: saxes & flute
Gordon Haskell: bass & vocals
Andy McCulloch: drums
Peter Sinfield: words

with Robin Miller: oboe & cor anglais
Mark Charig: cornet Nick Evans: trombone
Keith Tippett: Piano
Jon Anderson: vocal

'Lizard', King Crimson's third studio album & second recording of 1970, was, like its predecessor 'In the Wake of Poseidon', the product of a studio band. It was also the first Crimson album for which Robert Fripp provided all of the music. Remarkably self-contained & sounding somewhat atypical for a King Crimson album - even by the standards of a band that rarely sounded similar from album to album, 'Lizard' is an often overlooked & under-appreciated gem from their early years. Certainly at the time of release, anyone expecting an extension of the soundscapes introduced & explored on the band's earlier two albums was in for a surprise.

'Lizard' featured a lighter, more delicate sound than the earlier albums - an approach perhaps necessitated by an extended instrumental lineup. The expanded range of instruments allowed for intricately interwoven instrumental passages - with Fripp's guitar & Tippett's piano pleasingly to the fore - and this combination, along with the prominence afforded to Mel Collins & the guest players on the album's main title suite, led some to believe that Fripp was guiding Crimson towards the world of jazz & away from rock altogether. But such claims were misguided. Crimson was, as ever, seeking to expand the vocabulary of rock music & 'Lizard' was, in some ways, the band's most ambitious album to date.

As this lineup never toured, very little of the material was performed live & 'Lizard' remained a product of the studio environment & the musicians who performed on it. 'Lizard's standalone nature makes it difficult even to compile in context next to Crimson's other material - with only "Bolero" featuring on the box sets covering Crimson's extensive history. 'Lizard' remains a fascinating, intriguing album - an album only a band called King Crimson could make - even if it was a very different King Crimson to that which had gone before or would come after.

Now completely remixed from the original multitrack recording tapes by Steven Wilson for 5.1 Surround Sound & featuring a new stereo mix from the same source tapes by Robert Fripp & Steven Wilson, 'Lizard' finally reveals its true beauty. As Steven Wilson put it: "I've always felt that if presented in the right way, I could make a case for this being the most experimental rock record ever made. It's extraordinary what they're doing on this album. In terms of fusing free-jazz with progressive rock for me there's almost no parallel."