BLOG POST King Crimson are opening the vault on one of their boldest lineups. The prog rock legends will release ‘2014 NYC’ as 2LP and 2CD sets on July 10th, 2026, drawn from live multi-track recordings of the group’s electric four-night run at New York’s Best Buy Theatre in September 2014.
New York has always held a special place in the band’s story. Label Glass Onyon traces the connection back to the 1969 Fillmore East breakthrough, through the early-’70s returns, the Larks’-era farewell at Central Park in 1974, the celebrated six nights at the Savoy in 1981, and a 2008 quintet that introduced Gavin Harrison. The 2014 stand marked the next major reset at that same venue.
The 2014 band looked like nothing else touring at the time, with three drummers lined up across the front. Robert Fripp described the idea as a sudden point of seeing, turning rhythm into a moving, interlocked engine.
The group treated its catalog as living material, rebuilt with microscopic attention rather than copied note-for-note. The trio of drummers delivered a choreographed surge and uncanny unity, with Harrison joking it felt like one drummer with six legs and six arms. The calmer chemistry among the seven players let them hit with brute force and fine detail at once, refreshing older classics and giving newer pieces extra muscle.
Performances like “Starless,” framed with a deliberate red-light nod to 1974, proved Crimson could honor its past without sliding into nostalgia. This is a thrilling document of a group still reinventing its own language with no obvious limit.
From 2014 to 2021, the band played music that stayed, in Fripp’s words, new whenever it’s performed, freshly minted each night. They’d often stay in one city for multiple nights to meet ticket demand while keeping to venues where everyone could see and hear fully.
‘2014 NYC’ kicks off a new series compiled from those single-city runs, starting with the September 2014 New York shows. Later this year, in Autumn 2026, a 2x Blu-ray release will capture the band’s entire 19-date 2014 U.S. tour and include this compilation.
The sets feature Robert Fripp on guitar and keyboards, Jakko Jakszyk on guitar and vocals, Mel Collins on sax and flute, Tony Levin on bass, Chapman Stick and backing vocals, and drummers Gavin Harrison, Bill Rieflin and Pat Mastelotto.
‘2014 NYC’ 2LP Track Listing:
Side A: Introductory Soundscape
Larks’ Tongues in Aspic (Part I)
Pictures of a City
Side B: A Scarcity of Miracles
The Letters
The Sailor’s Tale
The Hell Hounds of Krim
Side C: Red
Improv: Hoodoo
The Talking Drum
Larks’ Tongues in Aspic (Part II)
Side D: VROOOM
Coda: Marine 475
The Light of Day
21st Century Schizoid Man
‘2014 NYC’ 2CD Track Listing:
CD1: Introductory Soundscape
Larks’ Tongues in Aspic (Part I)
Pictures of a City
A Scarcity of Miracles
Banshee Legs Bell Hassle
Level Five
The Letters
The Sailor’s Tale
Interlude
The ConstruKction of Light
Red
CD2: One More Red Nightmare
VROOOM
Coda: Marine 475
The Light of Day
The Talking Drum
Larks’ Tongues in Aspic (Part II)
Starless
The Hell Hounds of Krim
Improv: Hoodoo
21st Century Schizoid Man