Entering into the Aston Spirit with King Crimson’s Jakko Jakszyk

We are proud to welcome guitarist and vocal legend Jakko Jakszyk into the Aston family.

Jakko began recording informally with guitarist Robert Fripp in 2010, before being announced as the new front man of King Crimson in the 2014 rebirth of the prog rock giants. He has been working with Fripp, Tony Levin and company ever since. Earlier in his illustrious career he has worked with Level 42, Tom Robinson and the Kinks among others. His vocal wizardry has won him many accolades including the 2017 ‘Chris Squire Virtuoso award’ at the prestigious Progressive Music Awards.

His relationship with the Aston Spirit was initially intended as short-term fix but has turned into something altogether more serious, with the switchable-pattern condenser now his go-to mic.

“When my favourite vintage vocal microphone broke, someone suggestion the Aston Spirit as a temporary replacement...   I never got my vintage mic repaired.” he explains.

It would be no surprise to find the recommendation had come from Crimson producer and Aston 33 member Chris Porter who has been using Spirits, Origins and Starlights in the studio and on the world tour: “I use my Origin a Spirits happily alongside classic microphones such as the Neumann 49b, U87 or AKG C414s and often choose the Astons.” said Chris in a recent chat with Aston.

Chris is not alone amongst top producers who insist the Spirit holds its own against far more expensive and lauded mics. Dave Pemberton (Kasabian, The Prodigy, Orbital, Groove Armada), like Jakko Jakszyk discovered the Spirit sound through adversity: “The vintage U47 started to pop and fizzle so I switched to a Spirit. The clients seemed unaware of the change... the Spirit had more presence than the U47 and it certainly kept the warmth.”

The Aston Spirit is designed to deliver a beautiful, open sound with sparkling harmonics to give stunningly natural and transparent recordings, capturing all the detail in the high range but without the harshness associated with some other condenser microphones.

We were delighted to present Jakko Jakszyk with this specially engraved Spirit microphone at one of King Crimson's recent gigs.

Jakko and King Crimson continue their tour through 2018 with a number of UK dates scheduled for October and November. Highlights of the band’s performance have been captured on a 3 CD/1 blu ray set entitled Meltdown, recorded during their five night residency at Teatro Metropolitan, Mexico City in July 2017.

For further information on the Aston Spirit condenser microphone click here

Thanks to Tony Levin Official Page for the photo of Jakko.