Rock Bottom, recorded with a star-studded cast of Canterbury musicians, has been deservedly acclaimed as one of the finest art rock albums. Several forces surrounding Wyatt's life helped shape its outcome. First, it was recorded after the former Soft Machine drummer and singer fell out of a five-story window and broke his spine. Legend had it that the album was a chronicle of his stay in the hospital…
Critically acclaimed as one of the best records ever, 1974 Robert Wyatt’s masterpiece has been re-arranged by Craig Fortnam for his amazing North Sea Radio Orchestra. Featuring long time Wyatt’s collaborator and Henry Cow founder John Greaves on bass guitar and vocals and the amazing vocalist Annie Barbazza as lead singer: this is a hearfelt, fantastic tribute to Robert Wyatt’s music.
Rock Bottom, recorded with a star-studded cast of Canterbury musicians, has been deservedly acclaimed as one of the finest art rock albums. Several forces surrounding Wyatt's life helped shape its outcome. First, it was recorded after the former Soft Machine drummer and singer fell out of a five-story window and broke his spine. Legend had it that the album was a chronicle of his stay in the hospital. Wyatt dispels this notion in the liner notes of the 1997 Thirsty Ear reissue of the album, as well as the book Wrong Movements: A Robert Wyatt History. Much of the material was composed prior to his accident in anticipation of rehearsals of a new lineup of Matching Mole. The writing was completed in the hospital, where Wyatt realized that he would now need to sing more, since he could no longer be solely the drummer…
Out of print and hard to get 2009 UK Domino label 14CD box set comprising singlular and prominent English exp- and artrock musician and radical political singer/singwriters 9 studio albums and including the 5-disc EP's box illuminating various periods in Wyatt's long solo career - singles, odd B-sides, live cuts, alternate versions, and remixes. It begins with "Rock Bottom" (1974) which was made after Wyatt had been permanently confined to a wheelchair following a fall from a high window the previous year. Following "Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard" (1975), Wyatt took an extended break, returning reinvigorated in 1980 with a series of excellent singles on the Rough Trade label, with some B-sides generously given over to other artists. All are collected together on "Nothing Can Stop Us" (1982).
The probably most important and influential band to grow out the Canterbury Scene was Soft Machine. The band emerged in 1967 as the quartet of Robert Wyatt (drums, vocals), Mike Ratledge (keyboards), Kevin Ayers (bass, vocals) and Daevid Allen (guitar, vocals). Through a persistence of personnel changes (totalling ~30), their sound was to changed continually over the years of their existence. This band along with Caravan (both to come out of the formative Wilde Flowers), would influence the emergence of the Canterbury Sound (Matching Mole, Egg, Hatfield & the North, and many more). Many careers began with Soft Machine: Robert Wyatt (Matching Mole band and solo artist)…
This was a short lived, but essential band in the annals of what's called the Canterbury Sound, created by British progressive ensembles in the late sixties and early seventies. The band was formed when Robert Wyatt was ousted from Soft Machine, which he'd founded in the mid-sixties. "Matching Mole" was a wonderful debut that included tracks such as 'O Caroline', 'Signed Curtain' and 'Part of the Dance'. This edition has been newly remastered from the original master tapes and is expanded to include five previously unreleased studio session alternate takes, the single versions of 'O Caroline' and 'Signed Curtain', along with two BBC Radio One sessions from 1972…
This was a short lived, but essential band in the annals of what's called the Canterbury Sound, created by British progressive ensembles in the late sixties and early seventies. The band was formed when Robert Wyatt was ousted from Soft Machine, which he'd founded in the mid-sixties. "Matching Mole" was a wonderful debut that included tracks such as 'O Caroline', 'Signed Curtain' and 'Part of the Dance'. This edition has been newly remastered from the original master tapes and is expanded to include five previously unreleased studio session alternate takes, the single versions of 'O Caroline' and 'Signed Curtain', along with two BBC Radio One sessions from 1972…
Featuring Joff Winks (vocals, guitars, drum programming and samples), Matt Baber (Rhodes, synthesizer, percussion, mini drum kit), Brad Waissman (bass) and Paul Mallyon (drums, percussion, mini drum kit), the band was formed from the ashes of the Joff Winks Band and the Antique Seeking Nuns (a heady mix of Zappa and Canterbury influenced instrumental compositions with songwriting that owed much to artists such as Robert Wyatt). However, after a year of not performing live and only working in the studio, the need for the duo to be back in a band reached a feverish pitch. So with an ever-mounting pile of new songs the members of the Joff Winks Band came back together under the new moniker of Sanguine Hum, recording the album "Diving Bell”. Initially released in limited quantities on the Troopers for Sound website, the album is a complex ensemble work, featuring profound song writing…
Albert Marcoeur, French multi-instrumentalist/composer, was born on December 12 1947, in Dijon, France. During his formal education of clarinet at the National Academy of Music and Dance of Dijon, Marcoeur actively participated in many straightforward college rock 'n roll bands. Closing an end to his formal training Marcoeur's musical visions had gravitated towards the experimental facets of music, wishing "to do nothing else but make my own music". In 1970, the realisations of Marcoeur's 'unclassifiable' forays found their conception, marking the being of studio life. It was to be another four years until the release of his first self-titled album, which still ranks as his greatest recording to date. Loosely classified as proto-RIO chamber-rock, the album lays down several RIO foundations (much like Robert Wyatt's, "The End of an Ear"), later to be picked up by the likes of Aksak Maboul…