John Peel Carol Concert ~ boxing day 1970

About time for a proper Christmas concert I think!

Here are the wonderful voices of "The Top Gear Carol Singers" featuring Marc Bolan, John Peel and wife Sheila, Robert Wyatt, Mike Ratledge, Rod Stewart, Kenny Jones, Pete Buckland, Romie Young, Sonja Kristina, Ian McLagan, Ronnie Lane, Ronnie Wood, Ivor Cutler and David Bedford (piano).

More info on YouTube.

The Unthanks Archive Treasures (2005 - 2015)

The Unthanks "Memory Box" (mentioned here) seems to be out of stock, but remember you may get your "Archive Treasures" CD, with a fine (instrumental) version of Robert Wyatt´s "Alifib/Alifie", and lots of other good stuff too!

The "Alifib/Alifie" track was recorded at Brighton Dome in 2012.

Bristol Pound Mug

Great mugshot? I found it over at Stokes Craft China, where you may order one.

The picture is based on stencil artist Stewy´s Bristol £5 note.

Athelas Sinfonietta: Free Will And Testament

Another one from the evening of Athelas Sinfonietta playing Robert Wyatt and Nico in Copenhagen (23 October 2015).

Here is "Free will and testament".

A Beautiful Peace

Aaron M. Olson covers "A Beautiful Peace" (R. Wyatt/B. Eno) from "Comicopera" on his Bandcamp album "What Song I Should Sing​?​?​?".

Athelas Sinfonietta: Robert Wyatt

Remember the blog post on Copenhagen´s "G((o))ng Tomorrow" - festival in October, where Athelas Sinfonietta performed works by Robert Wyatt and Nico?

Here are some new videos from YouTube of Regine Petersen´s take on "A Last Straw" and Peter Bruun´s on "Sight of the wind", both sung by Jomi Massage.

TRICATEL XX

The Tricatel record label is celebrating it´s 20th year, and a new sampler called "Tricatel XX" is released 10 December.

One of the tracks on the CD is the wonderful and catchy "This summer night" written by Bertrand Burgalat, Alfreda Benge and Robert Wyatt (who is also singing).
May well be played while it´s still winter too!

And please note, this song is not on the vinyl version!

John Greaves - Piacenza

John Greaves recently released a new album called "Piacenza" (Dark Companion 2015).

The album´s track number 16 is (a rehearsals bonus track) Robert Wyatt´s "Sea Song".

I have not heard it yet, but will probably order from Ma.Ra.Cash Records or Amazon France.

John Greaves: Steinway Grand Piano, vocals.
Annie Barbazza: vocals and piano on “Sea Song”,
background vocals on “The Song”
Paola Tagliaferro: background vocals on “The Song”.

G((o))ng Tomorrow

Hey, any readers present in Koncertkirken in Copenhagen 23 October during the "G((o))ng Tomorrow" - festival?

Part of the program here:

20.00 Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen & Jomi Massage

Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen; Jomi Massage, solist; Martin Nagashima Toft, conductor.

New works by:Henriette Groth, Peter Bruun, Regin Petersen og Morten Olsen
Based on music by Nico and Robert Wyatt.


Robert Wyatt /Peter Bruun:
Free will and Testament
Sight of the Wind

Nico /Henriette Groth
Evening of Light
No one is there

Robert Wyatt /Regin Petersen :
A last Straw

Morten Olsen/Jomi Massage: Nico
I. The Beginning – prelude
II. Song number one: As a Child
III. The Middle: Interlude
IV. Song number two: Who Am I
V. The End: this is the end, my only friend, the end

Danish paper Weekendavisen didn´t seem all too happy (Danish link), saying that that the main purpose seemed to be to "add some classical elegance to the original songs" (my not too good translation there).

More reviews somewhere?

Mojomakerz

Mojomakerz are Paul Hegarty and Ian James Stewart. Robert Wyatt sings background vocals on "Ship of Fools" and "Weirdiful You" on their new album "Tales for sunrise" (Weirdiful You Records 2015).

"Weirdiful You" is also among the four tracks of Youth (Martin Glover) mixes to be found on a separate blue disc (to be played on 45 rpm) on my double limited, vinyl edition.
Watch the video uploaded by Mojomakerz, and you will see some groovy cooking too!

Among the other artists featured let´s just mention BJ Cole.

And the music? This is what they say themselves: "It's a mixture of electronic, ambient, rock, chilled music, some tracks are instrumental, some have vocals".

Hugh Hopper 10 CDs

I have not started buying or listening to the 10 CD series dedicated to unreleased (true for all tracks??) material from Hugh Hopper yet (Gonzo 2014-2015), but at least I have started to check out the info on the net! On Discogs you may find out the track lists and the personnel of each CD.

Robert Wyatt is present on:

- "Memories" on "Memories" Vol.1. (drums)
- "Facelift" (five versions) on "Anatomy of a Facelift" Vol.2. (drums)
- "Was a friend" on "Was a Friend" Vol. 10. (vocals, piano).

And perhaps on "Bass on Top" Vol.8 too! According to Discogs: "..snippets of Robert Wyatt's background vocals were added to the recording by Hugh Hopper, but Wyatt is not credited on the release; it's not 100% sure that recordings of his voice were actually used".

Any reviews around that we should have read?

The São Paulo Tapes - Brazilian resistance songs

In September we had a post on Mônica Vasconcelos and her crowd funding campaign to make it possible to produce an album of Brazilian resistance songs, 'The São Paulo Tapes', with the help of Robert Wyatt.

That posting happened a bit too fast, but now is the time! The IndieGoGo site is now up and running, so check it out right here.

The Unthanks Memory Box

How about "The Unthanks Memory Box" for Christmas?

It contains CD, DVD, 7" vinyl , postcards etc. Some package indeed.
More info over at The Unthanks´ site, and that´s the only place you can get it from.

On "The Unthanks Archive Treasures", a CD of rarities, you will find an unreleased version of Robert Wyatt’s "Alifie/Alifib".

The archives CD will be available separately too.

Biografia autorizzata di Robert Wyatt

You have heard all about Marcus O´Dair´s great Robert Wyatt biography in English already, but here is an Italian translation by Alessandro Achilli!

Out 21 October on Guinti.

May be ordered from Italian Amazon.

Psychedelic Brittannia

Look out for a new documentary named "Psychedelic Brittannia" on BBC Four!

"The film is narrated by Nigel Planer with contributions and freshly-shot performances from artists who lived and breathed the psych revolution - Paul McCartney, Ginger Baker, Robert Wyatt, Roy Wood, the Zombies, Mike Heron, Vashti Bunyan, Joe Boyd, Gary Brooker, Arthur Brown, Kenney Jones, Barry Miles, the Pretty Things and the Moody Blues".

Some of the "freshly-shot" performances are interviews I presume?

The blog enters it´s final stage

With Newton´s stencil "Evolution" this blog enters it´s final stage.

From now on there will only be posts related to Robert Wyatt, and I might throw in an Ivor Cutler message or two, just so I still can call this site Robert Wyatt "and Stuff"!

I´m sorry to say I don´t have enough words inside me to produce blog posts about the other favorite topics any more, and let´s face it - you know how to google.

Look for me on Twitter, Flickr and Instagram.

David Gilmour - The Girl In The Yellow Dress

Jazzy official video for "The Girl In The Yellow Dress" from David Gilmour´s "Rattle that lock".

You hear some Robert Wyatt cornet in the background there.

Shining live at Trolltunga

Now are these guys crazy or are they crazy?

Check out Shining playing live at Trolltunga (The Troll´s Tongue) in Tyssedal near Odda, Hordaland County (Norway), 700 meters above ground (or lake).

The coordinates (from Wikipedia): 60°07′58,74″N 6°45′14,64.

If you really want to visit this place, please be really careful. A young student unfortunately fell from Trolltunga earlier this autumn.

MURAL

Sunday evening I went out to get myself a solid dose of improvisation! The SOFA label trio MURAL was playing in Bergen with visual artist Kjell Bjørgeengen.
The concert was scheduled to last for four hours (no less!), so I settled for most of hours number 2 and 3, and what a fine experience it was!

Jim Denley (wind instruments), Kim Myhr (guitar, zither) and Ingar Zach (percussion) enveloped the small audience (some lying flat out on pillows) in varied and relaxing music, while the videoart added magic to the room.

MURAL released "Tempo", a recording of another four hour performance, on a 3CD-box set not long ago.
Have a listen to some of it here!

Voice — Sculpting Sound

Seek out the the new film "Voice — Sculpting Sound with Maja S. K. Ratkje" (2015), made by IJ. Biermann (writer, director) and Kai Miedendorp (director of photography)!

You will meet Maja Ratkje as composer, solo artist, band member (SPUNK, POING) and collaborator with loads of different musicians, producing improv, noise, children´s opera, contemporary classical, sound installations, political songs etc (good music for short).

Thankfully the talking is not made up of hundreds of short interviews (as may happen in documentaries), but her own voiceover.

All through the film there are beautiful shots of nature, quite suitable for an artist taking a stand against pollution and the power of oil companies.

The film premiered at Trondheim Chamber Music Festival, and should absolutely be shown at more festivals.

The DVD version also has an interesting audiocommentary track with Ben Knight in conversation with Ratkje and Biermann.

If you want the DVD, here is a message from the director (a bit edited by me):
"Yes, I do sell the DVD, so far I only do it myself, since there is not „official“ release yet — only through myself (= Myrland Films). So far the only option to buy the DVD is through my e-mail (ijb -at- illogical -dot- de), via PayPal or other ways of payment I am happy to send the DVD out to anyone in the world! I also have Blu-Ray Discs, but I have to produce them one by one, but I can offer them to anyone who is interested in a higher visual quality (together with the 5.1 mix and the various sound options of course)."

Also see Eyal Hareuveni´s review over at The Free Jazz Collective".

Ivor Cutler Tee

Unfortunayely it seems like Ben Bryden’s Velvet Donkey´s crowdfunding project, to make "Glasgow Dreamer: The Music of Ivor Cutler", did not reach it´s goal.

I´ll post news on this project later, that is if anything happens.

At least I got my Ivor Cutler T-shirt!

Pasteups

Some people have been working hard around Bergen last night, giving us loads of fine pasteups.

From the top you have the blue ones by RENO, then a collaboration between RENO, John XC and Teg, and finally a work by John XC.

Other Minds

Check this video celebrating 20 festivals (1993 - 2015) organized by the San Francisco Other Minds, under the leadership of Artistic Director Charles Amirkhanian.

Brian Eno: The John Peel Lecture 2015

From now you have 23 days left to listen to Brian Eno´s John Peel Lecture over on BBC Radio 6 Music, introduced by Mark Radcliffe!

You may also read a transcript (PDF) of it all, and perhaps the transcript might stay longer on the site?

"The annual John Peel Lecture invites a notable figure from the music industry to shape a debate and create insight around music and music-related media. Taking its inspiration from one of the greatest radio broadcasters of all time, and a figure who perpetually challenged the status quo, the John Peel Lecture has been a part of the Radio Festival since 2011.

This year's John Peel Lecture will examine the ecology of culture. Brian Eno will seek to demonstrate how the whole complex of individuals and institutions engaged in culture - artists, broadcasters, gallerists, promoters, DJs, managers, lawyers, fans - are symbiotically connected parts of a single huge organism which we call Culture. He will outline some of his thinking on this very unpredictable ecology and explore the interconnective relationships between the elements and components that combine to create our culture, and show how cultural processes confer essential and important benefits on society."

Official Gong Band Members Statement

Gong don´t want you to buy Charly Records upcoming reissue of the Radio Gnome trilogy.

"We, the surviving members of Gong, do not support Charly Records upcoming reissue of the Radio Gnome trilogy.

None of the surviving members of the lineups that created those recordings were ever signed to Charly Records.

The truth is that during the making of Flying Teapot in January 1973, the band learned that the record company - BYG Records (also known as Promodisc) - had gone bust, it's Paris office stripped bare, no phones working. The band was abandoned at the Manor Studios midway through the album. Virgin - at the time just a chain of record stores and The Manor studios - was about to launch their record label.

Faced with an unpaid recording bill, they decided to cut their losses and release Flying Teapot as the second release on the new Virgin Records label. That's the true story."

Read the full statement over at Planet Gong.

The Un-Usual Suspects

Street artist AFK´s tribute to Bradley Manning, Anonymous, Edward Snowden, Julian Assange and Aaron Swartz was painted on a Bergen wall last night.

Møster! live at Øya 2015

Møster! playing "Bandha" (from "When You Cut Into The Present", Hubro) live at Øya (Oslo, Norway) 2015.

Møster! is Kjetil Møster (sax), Hans Magnus Ryan (guitar), Nikolai Eilertsen (bass) and Kenneth Kapstad (drums).

Play loud!

The São Paulo Tapes

Listen to Mônica Vasconcelos talk about a crowd funding campaign to make make it possible to produce an album of Brazilian resistance songs, 'The São Paulo Tapes', with the help of Robert Wyatt.

I can not find any info on where the campaign is set up, and how to contribute, but will come back with more later (here or in another post).

Morten Qvenild

Personal Piano by Morten Qvenild, Live @ Kongsberg Jazzfest 4th July 2015 from HyPer(sonal) Piano Video Stream on Vimeo.

Morten Qvenild (In the Country, sPaceMonkey, Susanna & the Magical Orchestra etc etc) recently released his first solo album "Personal Piano" on Hubro.

CD and download, but also a 45 rpm/140g double vinyl edition in an edition of 500, and with a Rihanna cover too!

Please watch the full concert from this year´s Kongsberg Jazz Festival (Norway).

Albatrosh - Duvet Day (stop motion video)

Check out this cute video for "Duvet Day", taken from the great Rune album "Night Owl" (2014) by Albatrosh.

Albatrosh is Eyolf Dale (p) and André Roligheten (sax).

RIO - Rock In Opposition 2015 à Le Garric / Tarn

Rock In Opposition - France Event is happening 18 - 20 September.

They seem to have both a Robert Wyatt stage and a Henry Cow stage.

For more info go here or here.

New Alfreda Benge Prints For Sale

We have already mentioned the paperback edition of Marcus O´Dair´s Robert Wyatt biography in the blog (July 9), and I just received info about an American edition out this week through Counterpoint and an Italian edition due in October.

To celebrate this there are three new beautiful prints of Alfreda Benge´s Robert Wyatt covers for sale at Hypergallery.

This time: Shleep, Comicopera and Dondestan!

There are still copies left of Alfie´s "Alice in Wonderland" print too. It´s on my wall now, getting some fine comments from visitors!

Mats Gustafsson, solo concert, Weidingen/Eifel from Kunst in Weidingen on Vimeo.

I kind of like the idea of having concerts inside art exhibitions, both when the art surrounds the musicians and when they play to certain pieces of art.

Here is Mats Gustafsson doing a solo concert (Weidingen/Eifel) around a sculpture made by Georg Herold.

Last year we had both Mats Äleklint and Mats Gustafsson interpreting Christian Marclay´s "Chalkboard" here in the blog.

David Gilmour & Friends

We have recently had a post on David Gilmour as presented in the September issue of Uncut, and here is another one, since the October issue of Mojo (number 263 2015) is finally on sale in Norway.

On the CD accompanying this issue, "David Gilmour & Friends", Gilmour visits on tracks by Phil Manzanera, Robert Wyatt, Ben Watt, David Crosby & Graham Nash, The Pretty Things and David Courtney, and there are artists that ".. have been hugely influenced by his playing style, the atmospherics in his music, and THAT tone" (as stated on the cover). Among the artist here (probably?!) fitting in the latter category is Dungen, Steven Wilson, B J Cole and Ulver.

The Robert Wyatt track is "Forest" from "Cuckooland" (2003).

Oh, and let´s not forget that David & Joe Gilmour play "Here, There and everywhere" by the Beatles! Not released elsewhere.

Linus & Økland / Van Heertum

The beautiful track "Felt" is taken from an upcoming album (Smeraldina-Rima late 2015) by Linus & Økland / Van Heertum.

Musicians:

Ruben Machtelinckx: baritone guitar/composition
Thomas Jillings: alt clarinet
Nils Økland: hardanger fiddle
Niels Van Heertum: euphonium

You might have missed the post (31 May 2015) on Linus + Skarbø / Leroux?

A new one from Møster!

The third album from Møster!, "When You Cut Into The Present" is set for relase on Hubro 11.09.2015!

Møster! is still: Kjetil Møster (sax), Hans Magnus “Snah” Ryan (guitar), Nikolai Hængsle Eilertsen (bass) and Kenneth Kapstad (drums).

Check out tracks from old, new and unreleased Hubro Albums on Soundcloud or on the Hubro site.

Robert Wyatt Interview

Over on PodOmatic you will find an interview with Robert Wyatt in bobcast: "Greenwich Sound Radio 'Creatures What You Never Knew About' 1984 Robert Wyatt talks and plays records from his collection (55 mins)".

I´m not able to embed it here in Blogger, so just follow the link.

The opening is classic Robert Wyatt modesty:
"..First thing I am gonna play is the version I did of "Caimanera" with Harry Beckett on trumpet, and then I´ll play the record I got it from, and you´ll see how wrong I got it"!

Dedicated to Robert Wyatt

Visit Une Discographie De Robert Wyatt for a list of records with tributes or dedications to Robert Wyatt.

1982 Festival

What a great music weekend we just had at the 1982 Festival at Bergen Kjøtt, with four evenings dedicated to the music of 1982 and friends.

A short version of the happenings:

- BJ Cole playing pedal steel with the trio, and no doubt enjoying it. Very nice!
- Kristin Bolstad adding electronics, and both prerecorded and live samples to the folk improv. Worked fine!
- Lumen Drones (check their ECM album!) bringing some volume, rock and drones, ending up inviting the full 1982 trio to participate on a couple of wild numbers!
- Fredrik Rysjedal´s animation, telling the story of his grandfather, to 1982´s music. Touching!
- Trygve Seim and Stian Omenås making 1982 a quintet for the first time, and you may also spot a little guest behind the drums there, making it the 1982 sextet.
- Sigbjørn Apeland presented his new solo project working with instruments that are not working! Quite dusty too some of them. First time I have seen him with a guitar!
- Fredrik Ljungkvist and 1982 playing a quiet and beautiful Sunday concert.
- Elisabeth Færøy Lund exhibiting her photos of houses in a Swedish street.

All four (highly recommended!) 1982 albums have Elisabeth Færøy Lund´s photos on the cover.

As always click on photos for larger versions. If you still wonder about that person with "wings" in photo number two, let me tell you that it is just Sigbjørn Apeland and the only (and quite dead) houseplant in the venue.

Grasscut: Radar

Grasscut´s "Radar" (Lo Recordings) is just released as a single, taken from their third album "Everyone Was A Bird".

No physical format as far as I can see, but you get a fine remix done by John Metcalf.

On the song (stolen from the Lo Recordings site): "Literally, and metaphorically, about the search for illumination ‘Radar’ was written by Phillips on a clear cold night in a forest in mid Wales, whilst lights from both across the estuary and the ancient stars above flickered through the trees, and borrows its title and chorus line ‘the world is dark as radar’ from American poet George Oppen".

Slapp Happy with Robert Wyatt: A Little Something

Slapp Happy and Friends with a sweet version of "A Little Something" here, recorded June 25 1974 for John Peel, and broadcasted July 16 1974.

Musicians: Peter Blegvad, Dagmar Krause, Fred Frith, Lindsay Cooper, Geoff Leigh and Jeff Clyne.

"Europa", "War Is Energy Enslaved" and "Me and Parvati" were also recorded, and Anthony Moore played on all tracks except "A Little Something".

All info taken from Michael King´s book "Wrong Movements" (SAF 1994).

Soft Machine: Live At The Paradiso 1969

Soft Machine´s "Live at the Paradiso 1969" is being re-released by Retroworld/Floating World (2015).

This recording from 1969, based on the second Soft Machine album, has been bootlegged several times (not that I have seen them!), and a remastered version was released on CD by Voiceprint in 1995 (cover to the left). A pretty good live album if you ask my opinion, but you might rather listen to John Kelman of AAJ?

The band: Mike Ratledge (organ), Hugh Hopper (bass) and Robert Wyatt (drums, vocals).

Stephan Meidell Live Video

STEPHAN MEIDELL from Stephan Meidell on Vimeo.

Check out Stephan Meidell´s video, recorded live 4th of February 2015 at Bergen Kjøtt, Bergen (Norway).

Visuals: Tolga Balci.

From Meidell´s Vimeo: "The idea for this video was to make something between a concert video and a music video. Creating an engaging visual experience from something that is - at it's core - slow and static. Only one performer playing 25 minutes of improvised, repetitive loop/drone based music utilizing computer and a cassette-player is maybe not the most exciting thing to see on a video, but hypnotic visuals created by the Turkish artist Tolga Balci, and a crew of five photographers made this performance special.
The music is mainly improvised, with a framework worked out beforehand".

Trondheim Chamber Music Festival

Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje is festival composer at the Trondheim Chamber Music Festival 20 - 27 September. A total of 15 works by/with Ratkje will be on the festival program.

The festival also celebrates a film premiere: I.J. Biermann´s "Voice - sculpting sound with Maja S.K. Ratkje".

Check out the program right here.

September in Trondheim might just be the time and place.

Jono El Grande

Listen to this one by Jono El Grande (real name Jon Andreas Håtun)! It´s "Bach´s Beach" from "Melody Of A Muddled Mason" to be relased on Rune Grammofon in September 2015.

Like it? If your tastes are in the prog - Zappa - Canterbury area you should check out his other albums too!

David Gilmour

Eleven pages and front cover with David Gilmour in Uncut (Take 220 September 2015), focusing on the new solo album "Rattle That Lock" to be released in September.

Robert Wyatt is one of the people interviewed for the piece.

Wyatt on Pink Floyd versus Gilmour´s solo work: ""The Floyd was more overtly dramatic," he offers. "The climaxes were were more climactic. The wait-for-it-bits were more wait-for-it. There´s almost a kind of folk-music flow to what David does now. It´s more undulated landscape than mountains and valleys"".

Wyatt is playing cornet on the track "The girl in the yellow dress" on the new album.
On other tracks too?

Glasgow Dreamer: The Music of Ivor Cutler

Sax player Ben Bryden and his band, Ben Bryden’s Velvet Donkey, is "working on a real labour of love, bringing the music of the cult Scottish poet, humorist and songwriter Ivor Cutler, into the jazz canon".

You may support the making of the album "Glasgow Dreamer: The Music of Ivor Cutler" on Indiegogo. Release set for 2016.

Street Art In The Woods

Here are some photos from a great stunt made by Bergen based street artists Barnslig, MuM, Dake and Bares on Mount Fløyen (one of seven mountains surrounding the city).

Trolls, monsters and animals painted on plastic among the trees, made an exciting exhibition (lasting only a couple of days).

Watch a video from the work right here.

BLOW OUT! (Oslo) 2015

The Blow Out! festival in Oslo is happening 19 - 22 August at Café Mir (and a matiné at Cappelens Forslag).
More on Facebook.


Wednesday 19 August

Maria Chavez / Evan Parker / Paal Nilssen-Love / Ståle Liavik Solberg

Tommi Keränen solo

Susana Santos Silva / Christine Wodrascka / Christian Meaas Svendsen / Håkon Berre

Frode Gjerstad / Nick Stephens / Magnus Skavhaug Nergaard / Andreas Wildhagen


Thursday 20 August

Joe McPhee / Alex von Schlippenbach / Per Zanussi / Paal Nilssen-Love

Maria Chavez solo

Magda Mayas / John Russell

Heat Death


Friday 21 August

Will it float?

Joe McPhee solo

Not On The Guest List

Schlippenbach trio


Saturday 22 August

Matiné at Cappelens Forslag

DUO - Natalie Sandtorv / Steve Beresford

TRIO - Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø / Kristoffer Alberts / Nick Stephens

Evening programme at Café Mir

Extended Ground: Frode Gjerstad / Martin Küchen

Per Oddvar Johansen / Trygve Seim

Bauer-Anker Kvartett

Kresten Osgood Organ Bonanza

Jenny Hval: Apocalypse, Girl

Why don´t you check out Jenny Hval´s new album "Apocalypse, Girl" (Sacred Bones Records, 2015)? (Yes, we have mentioned it already, but once more does nnot hurt.)

Intense lyrics, great vocals, and with the help of these musicians: Håvard Volden, Kyrre Laastad, Øystein Moen (Jaga Jazzist/Puma), Thor Harris (Swans), improv cellist Okkyung Lee and harpist Rhodri Davis. Great stuff!

Videos for the tracks "Sabbath" and the battle is over" embedded.

Wilderness Festival: Cutler and Wyatt

At the Wilderness festival (Cornbury Park, Oxforshire August 6th - 9th 2015) there will be talks about Ivor Cutler and Robert Wyatt!

Y’hup! The Story of Ivor Cutler - "Following his performance as Ivor in the critically acclaimed The Beautiful Cosmos of Ivor Cutler (Vanishing Point/NTS), actor Sandy Grierson will trace the meanderings of both the man and his music..".

Different every time: writing the authorised biography of Robert Wyatt - "Marcus O’Dair talks about Wyatt and the experience of writing his biography".

Jono McCleery: Age Of Self

Ooh, check out this beautiful, folky version of Robert Wyatt´s "Age of self" by Jono McCleery.
The track taken from his third solo album 'Pagodes', released October 2nd via If Music.

I found the info over at Clash.

Robert Wyatt Symposium

Richard King will be chairing a Robert Wyatt Symposium with biographer Marcus O´Dair and Robert Wyatt´s A&R Andy Childs at the Port Elliot Festival (St. Germans, Cornwall) on Friday 31 July.

The Unthanks - Starless (Glastonbury 2015)

OOOPS! We had a nice video here - but it seems to have vanished from YouTube. Hope some of you managed to see it.

The Unthanks perform King Crimson´s "Starless" in the BBC Music Tepee at Glastonbury 2015.

The track is taken from their 2011 album "Last".

Live at Roulette: 3 Degrees of Robert Wyatt

In June we had a blog post on "Spinning on Air Series: 3 Degrees of Robert Wyatt, Curated By and Featuring Invisible Familiars (4 June 2015)".

Now you may listen to the highlights from this concert tribute to Robert Wyatt held at Roulette in Brooklyn, lasting for almost an hour and presented by David Garland.

I don´t know how long it will be available, but there is no reason to wait. Just have a listen!

The following is stolen from the Spinning On Air site:

"Jared Samuel and his band Invisible Familiars coordinated the concert, "3 Degrees of Robert Wyatt," which featured Joan Wasser (Joan As Police Woman), Oren Bloedow (Elysian Fields), Adam Minkoff (The Machine), Charlotte Kemp Muhl (The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger), Michael Leonhart (Steely Dan), Greek singer Monika, and Jordyn Blakely and Noah Berman of Invisible Familiars, as well as Spinning On Air's own David Garland".

Concert photos on Flickr.

The Thing with James Blood Ulmer at Moldejazz

Moldejazz 2015 is over and here is a video from one of the highlights from the festival:
The Thing with James Blood Ulmer!

As usual the weather was shitty and the music was great! The festival economy has been pretty strained the last years, and after this year we might see a change, since they have decided to end the outdoor concerts. These concerts were supposed to draw huge audiences that probably wouldn´t turn up for the regular jazz concerts and finance the other stuff happening (and perhaps get some to attend other concerts they didn´t mean to visit). They have had Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Antony, Leonard Cohen and Stevie Wonder (to name a few) but the tactics have failed these last years (due to weather, programming, higher costs and so on), and D´Angelo not showing up for his concert Friday last week due to disease (on extremely short notice) was probably what did it for the festival.

Perhaps we will get a more focused festival the years to come. Might be a good thing in the end.

This year I attended The Thing + Ulmer concert (what power!), Zanussi 5 (please check out this band!) , Trondheim Jazz Orchestra with Espen Reinertsen doing a "Forgaflingspop" project (sweet!) and artist in residence Mats Gustafsson´s tribute to the Norwegian skier Petter Northug (crazy!).

Witold Bolik - Tribute to Robert Wyatt

"Muddy Mouse X" and "Muddy Mouse Z" [Fred Frith/Robert Wyatt] recorded in February/March 2015 for L'Oreille Absolue and "O Caroline" [Richard Sinclair/Robert Wyatt] taken from Witold Bolik´s album "Covers" (Bandcamp 2014).

Different Every Time - Paperback

Just in case you still haven´t got Marcus O´Dair´s wonderful "Different Every Time: The Authorised Biography of Robert Wyatt" (Serpent´s Tail): It is out in glorious paperback today (9 July 2015)!

Easy to carry in bags and suitcases for the holiday.

And yes, we have mentioned this book a couple of times before (here after reading it).

Miniatures

Megaphone/Knock´em Dead recently re-issued "Miniatures" - A sequence of fifty-one tiny masterpieces edited by Morgan Fisher (originally released in 1981 - or was it 1980?).

What a collection of (no longer than) one minute pieces!

Robert Wyatt was recorded at home in 1980 doing "Rangers in the night" with tape manipulation by Morgan Fisher.

We also find friends like Ivor Cutler, Lol Coxhill and Fred Frith, Frith doing no less than "The entire works of Henry Cow"!

And how about David Bedford playing "Wagner´s Ring in one minute" and Pete Seeger doing "Chorale for Beethoven´s 9th Symphony" for banjo? On the same album!

Now pressed on 180-gram vinyl with 23" x 23" foldout poster, and you will find the track list over here.

(And I wrote almost the same when a CD version was released in 2008).