Soon, soon, soon

Soft Machine 1967. Psychedelic!

Wyatt live in London

Robert Wyatt talks about it at the Southbank Centre monday 15 october.

Soft Machine in Oslo

Some days ago I wrote about Fred Frith, and his concert at Høvikodden, Oslo, Norway. I started surfing around, and realised that Soft Machine had played there in 1971. They had light show by Mark Boyle,and here you may read a report from one who was there. The same concept was mentioned earlier in the blog too,as "beyond image". Norwegian readers may also see this article about the music at Høvikodden.

It's not easy being negative

As you may have noticed, this is a positive blog. I write about stuff i like (mostly). Yesterday I thought enough is enough, and decided to get tough, and pick out four lousy albums with Robert Wyatt on them! After giving it some thought though, let's settle for four albums I seldom play. OK?
- David Bedford And Kevin Ayers: "The Garden of Love" from 1970. The line-up is incredible with David Bedford, Mike Oldfield, Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, Lol Coxhill, a classical quintet and six beautiful girls dancing and turning pages!I think it's supposed to be a little free jazz in there (sorry Lol, I don't mean to say you can't do it) and after almost 20 minutes we get Kevin Ayers singing William Blake, and then it's over.
- The Amazing Band: "Roar" (1970). Mal Dean, Valeroy Spall, Mick Brannan, Maia Spall, Chris Francis, Jim Mullen og Robert Wyatt. It's jazzy and noisy, but you don't need this because of Wyatt.
- Jo Fletcher: "Jo Fletcher" (2003). Here we find Robert Wyatt in a strange pop-americana setting. You may be able to hear him in the background.
- Lucky Scars: "Fish out of water" (1994). Wyatt says on the cover "--it would be enjoyable even if the content didn't matter". I think this one was in support of people with different handicaps. I just have to confess I liked this record now! I would almost classify it as an indie-album, and Robert Wyatt is scatting away!
There you have it, it's not easy being negative.

Fred Frith

If you are in Oslo today, vist The Henie Onstad Arts Centre. Fred Frith is playing there! Frith is a well known solo artist and member of bands like Henry Cow, Art Bears, French-Frith-Kaiser and Thompson, Skeleton Crew, Naked City and maybe Residents? Please remind me not to start collecting. He is on more than 400 records. Fred Frith has visited this arts centre earlier, and it is documented on Henry Cow's "Concerts", where Robert Wyatt also appears. Check the venues programme, it looks promising.

Favourites

Today it is one year since I started my Norwegian Blog "Wyatting". The celebration is a list of favourites:
Robert Wyatt: Rock Bottom (1974)
Richard Thompson: Shoot Out The Lights (1982)
John Cale: Paris 1919 (1973)
Brian Eno: Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy (1974)
Miles Davis: Bitches Brew (1970)

Agnes Bernelle

The beautiful portrait is taken by Jim FitzPatrick. Thanks!
I can't claim to be a cabaret expert, but I like Agnes Bernelle (1923-1999). This vocalist and actor might be worth checking out. I own "Father's Lying dead On The Ironing Board" (Imp Records, 1985), and has played that a lot, but nothing beats the tiltle of the album "Mother,The Wardrobe is full of Infantrymen"!

Free will and testament

This is one of my favorites (written by Wyatt and Kramer), and look at this recording. The man is king!

You may find the song recorded here:
Hugh Hopper & Kramer: A Remark Hugh Made (Shimmy, 1994)
Robert Wyatt: Free Will And Testament (7", Trade 2, 1997)
Robert Wyatt: Shleep (Hannibal, 1997)
Robert Wyatt: EPs (Hannibal, 1999, remix)
Robert Wyatt: His Greatest Misses (Hannibal, Japan, 2004)
Christine Collister : The Dark Gift Of Time (Fledgeling, 1998, cover)

Play your own thing

Unfortunately I seldom watch TV. This morning I woke up to a message from a friend, asking if I saw Robert Wyatt on the telly (Norwegian NRK2). They showed "Play Your Own Thing: A Story of Jazz in Europe" (2006) by Julian Benedikt, and I guess our man is interviewed at least. Now I just hope they send it once more!

Sing like you speak

It is two pages with Robert Wyatt in The Word number 55, sept. 2007. (Yes it's a lousy picture, but I hope this can pass for "fair use", to give you an impression).

Shakin' that ass

Here is the second record this year from Two Bands And A Legend, "I see you baby" (Smalltown Superjazz, 2007). This is an EP recorded during the sessions for "Two Bands And A Legend", issued earlier this year. It is still great stuff, from the funky opening "I see you baby shakin' that ass", through "Nation Time" to the beautiful Donald Ayler psalm "Our Prayer". The last one was on the first album from this bunch too, "Sounds like a sandwich" (Cato Salsa Experience and The Thing with Joe McPhee, Smalltown Supersound, 2005).

Play the people!

I wrote about the Oi Oi Festival in Bergen in May, and I just have to show you the "Folkofon" instrument. You may play the Folkofon (meaning "Peopleophone") here. "Klikk her først" = "Start by clicking here", then play with the keyboard. See if you find this guy!

The Fat Is Gone!

Peter Brötzmann altosax/tenorsax/bass-clarinet
Paal Nilssen-Love drums/percussion
Mats Gustafsson baritonsax/flutophone

These guys kick ass, stomach, heart and head! This CD is smoking fresh, but it was recorded at the Reknes venue, Molde International Jazz Festival, 2006 (Smalltown Superjazz, 2007). It was early afternoon, sunshine and around 100 people in the audience. Among them your's truly. It is jazz, it is impro, and it makes just the right amount of noise. Play loud!

Norwegian National Discography

The Norwegian National Library will intensify the work with the national discography. Due to The Norwegian Act of Legal Deposit, two discs/tapes/CDs of each recording done, is to be deposited at The National Library. The law also applies to non-physical documents. You may search for artists, record companies and so on here. I hope they will include some sound clips in the future!

The Animals Film

After 25 years "The Animals Film" is issued on DVD. Robert Wyatts soundtrack on vinyl is from 1982, and is also disc number 4 in the 5CD box "EPs" (1999).
Check the Wyatt forum on StrongComet. That's where I found the film info.

Miles Davis

As always, I have played some Miles Davis lately. We will come back to him (again and again!), but let me just pull one hidden (?) gem from the sleeve: The soundtrack to "Ascenseur pour l'échafaud" (with Jean Moreau) from 1958. I have a Flickr set with Miles covers here.

Wyatt, Nico, Cale, Ayers, Eno

This summer I have been walking a lot around Bergen (Norway) looking for street art, travelled on Flickr and dived in my record collection (yeah, I know the rest of you were in all these exotic places!). That has resulted (among other things) in a focus on the two artists pictured here, Brian Eno and John Cale. We will come back to them! Eno stencil art from Taiwan by Formica and picture of John Cale by carolinebittencourt. Thanks!
The artists (their music at least!) in the title of this post have been a part of my life since I was around 18. They meet in different projects, but all of them are represented on the album "June 1, 1974" (Island, 1974): Robert Wyatt, Nico, John Cale, Kevin Ayers og Brian Eno. Buy!

Nostalgia warning: Almost Softs?

Kevin Ayers, Gary Olson and Heather McIntosh (2005).
Gary Olson, Isobel Knowles, Gus Franklin, Tara Shackell (Kevin Ayers Sessions, Wavelab Studios Tucson).

We have allready mentioned that we are looking forward to "Unfairground", the new Kevin Ayers album. The july edition of Mojo states that both Robert Wyatt and Hugh Hopper will be heard on the record. In addition to all the other bands we listed in an earlier post, we have to mention The Ladybug Transistor. They let "Robert Wyatt And Stuff" use pictures (1,2) from the sessions. Thanks to Gary Olson.

Welcome to the voice

I was warned, but I ended up buying Steve Nieve og Muriel Teodori's opera "Welcome to the voice" (Deutsche Grammophone, 2007). The idea behind this piece is the meeting of different voices. The profane voices, Sting (Dionysos), Robert Wyatt (the friend) and Elvis Costello (chief of police!) meet the sacred voices (the opera singers). The record has some good Wyatt-moments, and if you are a big fan of Sting, you should buy this. It's really not my cup of tea, but hey, I'm trying to be positive here!

Women of the world

See Yacht's version of Ivor Cutler/Linda Hirst´s "Women of the world" (1983), if you think you are up to it. Please remember, Mr. Cutler could not stand any noise!

Burgalat, Gilmour and others

Listen to Robert Wyatt with Bertrand Burgalat on Myspace! Everybody now, dance to Robert!

David Gilmour issues a new live-DVD, and who's on it, if not our man Wyatt?

Emmanuel Tugny has dedicated a song to Robert Wyatt on Myspace. It's the song "La Vue.."- something. I can't remember where i read it (it's all french to me on MySpace), but it's not totally unbelievable when you hear it!

The Norwegian Erik Johannessen claims he is inspired by Robert Wyatt. Listen to him on Norwegian Broadcasting's site "Urørt" (meaning untouched) (the music on "I killed the dog" sounds a bit inspired?).

Der Osten Ist Rot

One year from now (this day) the Olympic Games start in China. We celebrate with the blog's first national anthem, performed by Holger Czukay of Can fame. Czukay has a lot of good solo albums too!

Hunter S. Thompson

"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side"
Hunter S. Thompson (on a wall, Bergen, Norway)

Danny Thompson

In this blogpost we salute a musician who HAS made solo albums, but is more known as bass player for (close to) everybody else. The reason i started to think about Danny Thompson now, was a Sun Ra album I was playing, whith a "Danny Thompson" on it. This is a sax-man, so our man is not everywhere, thank God. Let's mention some of our friends that have worked with Danny Thompson: Richard Thompson, Marianne Faithfull, Norma Waterson, Billy Bragg, Pentangle, John Martyn, Davy Graham, David Sylvian, Linda Thompson (new record next week) and many more. See Discography here.

Wyatt interviewed

See this nice recording of Robert Wyatt talking (about Alfie, Rock Bottom and more).

Folk links

Fairport Convention's "Liege and Lief" is released as a double pack DeLuxe edition 13th august. John Harris writes about the album in The Guardian.

A new live album called "In Concert November 1975" from Richard and Linda Thompson, is released 6th august.

"Liege and Lief" and Richard Thompson are also among the winners of BBC2s Folk Awards for 2006.

See this interview with Anne Briggs in The Guardian.

Lady June

It's about time to mention the new edition of "Lady June's Linguistic Leprosy". This record was first issued in 1974 (5000 LPs!), and on CD in 1992. The new CD seems to be identical to the 1992 version.
Robert Wyatt is not on the record, but some other favourites are, like Lol Coxhill, Brian Eno and Kevin Ayers. Tonight i watched the Wyatt-documentary "Little Red Robin Hood" (again!) (VHS- black & white, 1998). In this film Lol Coxhill tells that he, Kevin Ayers and Robert Wyatt (with Archie Leggett) recorded a number for Lady Junes record (while "Lady June and Alfie went out shopping"). Lady June did not like the song, and it ended up as "Soprano Derivativo" on "...oh really?".
The things you learn in this blog!

Monade

Laetitia Sadier from Stereolab, is in a band (project?) called Monade. On Amazon UK it looks like they have issued a vinyl single called "Play Kevin Ayers"! Some searching leads to this THE MONINCS / ZINADE - Play Kevin Ayers" 7". A new Monade album ("Monstre cosmic") is scheduled for september release. On Myspace they have a nice version of the "Wyatt-song" "At last I'm free".

1:Wyattron 2:Emily Haines

What in the world is a "Wyattron"? A lot of people are wondering, since it appears in the announcement of the new Kevin Ayers album ("Unfairground"), and Björk use this expression after the cooperation with Wyatt on "Medulla". Pitchfork is of the opinion that it might be a bearded robot, but it is Wyatt's voice recorded and played with a kind of a mellotron? True, Heh?

Emily Haines is interviewed by HARP, and you may read "How Robert Wyatt Changed My Life" yourselves.

Nick Drake

Some of you may have noticed that we have been blessed with a new Nick Drake album.
"Family tree" is a collection of newly discovered recordings (from somebody's basement I guess). Nick Drake recorded three records in his time, and none of them were bestsellers: "Five leaves left" (1969), "Bryter later" (1970) and "Pink moon" (1972). I picked up "Bryter Later" around 1976, seeing John Cale and Richard Thompson credited on the cover, and this is still my favourite.
In addition to regular collections like "Fruit Tree" (1986), "Heaven in a wild flower" (1986) and "Way too blue" (1994), we already have collections of alternative recordings and unrecorded songs in "Time of no reply" (1986) and "Made to love magic" (2004). On the inner cover of the last one, John Wood claims it is "The final Nick Drake album". I have not bought the new one, and the question is - do we need more now?

"Now that I am dead
I can finally make a living"
("Now that I am dead" - French Frith Kaiser Thompson, 1990)