California Guitar Trio (CGT) is a band of three guitar players founded in Los Angeles in 1991 by Paul Richards, Hideyo Moriya, and Bert Lams around the concept of playing acoustic guitars in the New Standard Tuning taught by Robert Fripp on Guitar Craft courses. History and Formation Formation: The California Project The original members of California Guitar Trio met on the series of Robert Fripp's Guitar Craft courses in England in 1987. The three original members-—Paul Richards of Salt Lake City, Utah, Bert Lams of Affligem, Belgium, and Hideyo Moriya of Tokyo, Japan--toured as part of Robert Fripp and The League of Crafty Guitarists. After completing the 1991 tour of Europe with the League of Crafty Guitarists, Fripp asked Lams to write down a list of musical aims, materials, strategy, and possible collaborators for what was called the California Project. Lams named two other Guitar Craft students as potential collaborators who would be willing to move temporarily to Los Angeles to work with him on this project based out of his home: Richards and Moriya. Thus the California Project ultimately became the California Guitar Trio. The first official performance of the California Guitar Trio took place on February 7, 1991. They continue to play in the New Standard Tuning using amplified acoustic guitars and various combinations of effects, guitar synthesizers and live loop recording as part of their performances. Their performances and recordings include original compositions, surf covers, and arrangements of classical music created for the New Standard Tuning and their tight interplay style known as "circulation" in the Guitar Craft parlance. Their influences include European classical music, rock, blues, jazz, world music, and surf music. Robert Fripp String Quintet In 1992 and 1993 with Fripp and Trey Gunn, they toured and recorded as The Robert Fripp String Quintet. Several recordings of those performances are available through Fripp's DGMLive website. First Albums on DGM Records In 1991, the CGT self-released their self-titled demo album, recorded in Bert Lams’ home just outside Hollywood, California. The recordings on this release were remastered by Tony Arnold and augmented with two additional tracks to form their first CD released on Fripp's Discipline Global Mobile record label (now Inner Knot Records), the 1993 album Yamanashi Blues, In 1995, the trio were invited by physicist and Nobel Laureate Murray Gell-Mann to record at his residence near Lamy, New Mexico. The resulting album Invitation includes pieces