King Crimson alumnus David Cross and contemporary classical musician Andrew Keeling have reunited on October Is Marigold. The pair tell Prog about their unexpected partnership and why the right chemistry is so important when it comes to making music.

Words: Sid Smith

Cross and Keeling’s second album, October Is Marigold – out now!

Portrait: Chiemi Cross

Andrew Keeling: “The great thing about Cross and Keeling is that you can play spontaneously.”

PRESS/ TEVE PENNINGTON

It’s 1973 and David Cross is onstage at the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. It’s regarded as being among the finest classical music venues in the world, and the violinist is treading those hallowed boards as a member of King Crimson. To his immediate left stands John Wetton and just behind, sweating profusely and wiping himself down, sits Bill Bruford at the drum kit. On the other side of the large stage is Robert Fripp. As the applause dies away, the guitarist leans forward and, with the Mellotron on its flute setting, begins to play. Wetton cautiously explores the upper fretboard and then Cross delicately harmonises with Fripp’s notes. As Bruford sits in silence, arms folded across his chest, for the next five or six minutes these three players step into the unknown with an entirely unscripted and wholly improvised piece of music. Sounding for all the world like an official composition, as Wetton plays a gently descending arpeggio, Cross’ rhapsodic interplay with Fripp’s Mellotronic flutes takes flight. Swooping and soaring around the ornate cornices of the main hall, they eventually come to rest on a gentle cadence. In the subsequent applause, each player, including Bruford, who has been silent throughout, exchange a look as if to say, “How did that happen?” Little wonder then that the band decided to include this particular performance on 1974’s Starless And Bible Black with the suitable title, Trio.