Artist.......: Robert Wyatt
Album........: Comicopera
Label........: Domino
Genre........: Indie
Catnr........: n/a
source.......: CDDA
rip.date.....: Sep-21-2007
str.date.....: Oct-08-2007
quality......: VBR/44.1Hz/Joint-Stereo
Url..........: n/a
track title time
01. Stay Tuned 03:49
02. Just as You Are 04:22
03. You You 04:23
04. A W O L 02:58
05. Anachronist 03:36
06. A Beautiful Peace 02:29
07. Be Serious 02:56
08. On the Town Square 05:26
09. Mob Rule 02:16
10. A Beautiful War 02:40
11. Out of the Blue 03:45
12. Del Mondo 03:30
13. Cancion De Julieta 07:33
14. Pastafari 04:38
15. Fragment 01:40
16. Hasta Siempre Comandante 04:39
Runtime 60:40 min
Size 78,3 MB
Release Notes:
Robert Wyatt (born Robert Wyatt-Ellidge, 28 January
1945, in Bristol) is an English musician, and a
former member of the influential Canterbury scene
band Soft Machine.
Contents
Early life
As a teenager, he lived with his parents in Lydden
near Dover. Here he was taught the drums by
visiting American jazz drummer George Neidorf.
In 1962, Wyatt and Neidorf moved to Majorca where
they stayed near the poet Robert Graves. The
following year, Wyatt returned to England and
joined the Daevid Allen Trio with Daevid Allen and
Hugh Hopper. Allen subsequently left for France and
Wyatt and Hopper formed the Wilde Flowers with
Kevin Ayers, Richard Sinclair and Brian Hopper.
Wyatt was initially the drummer in the Wilde
Flowers, but following the departure of Ayers, he
became lead singer.
Soft Machine and Matching Mole
In 1966, the Wilde Flowers disintegrated, and Wyatt
and Mike Ratledge formed the Soft Machine with
Kevin Ayers and Allen. Here Wyatt both drummed and
sang, an unusual combination for a stage rock band.
In 1970, after chaotic touring, three albums and
increasing internal conflicts in Soft Machine,
Wyatt released his first solo album, The End of an
Ear, which combined his vocal and
multi-instrumental talents with tape effects.
A year later, Wyatt left Soft Machine and, besides
participating in the fusion bigband Centipede,
formed his own band Matching Mole (a pun on
"machine molle", the French for Soft Machine), a
largely instrumental outfit. After two albums and a
split, Matching Mole were about to embark on a
third record when, on 1 June 1973, during an
alcohol fueled party for Gong's Gilli Smyth and
June Campbell Cramer (also known as Lady June) at
the latter's Maida Vale home, an inebriated Wyatt
fell from a third floor window. He was paralysed
from the waist down (paraplegia) and subsequently
confined to a wheelchair. On 4 November that year,
Pink Floyd performed two benefit concerts, in one
day, at London's Rainbow Theatre, supported by Soft
Machine, and compered by John Peel. The concerts
raised a reported ú10,000 for Wyatt.
Solo career
The injury led Wyatt to abandon the Matching Mole
project, and his drumming. He promptly embarked on
a solo-career, and with musician friends (including
Mike Oldfield, the poet Ivor Cutler and Henry Cow
guitarist Fred Frith), he released his acclaimed
solo-album Rock Bottom. Later that same year he put
out a single, a cover version of "I'm a Believer",
which hit number 29 in the UK chart. Both were
produced by Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason. There
were strong arguments with the producer of Top of
the Pops surrounding his performance of "I'm a
Believer," on the grounds that his wheelchair-bound
appearance 'was not suitable for family viewing',
the producer wanting Wyatt to appear on a normal
chair. Wyatt won the day and 'lost his rag but not
the wheel chair', but gave a performance that could
be described as disgruntled.
Wyatt's next solo-album, Ruth Is Stranger Than
Richard, was more jazz-led, with free jazz
influences and nods to African music. Guest
musicians included Brian Eno on guitar, synthesizer
and "direct inject anti-jazz ray gun". Rock Bottom
was produced by Nick Mason and Wyatt would
subsequently sing lead vocals on Mason's 1981, and
first, solo album Fictitious Sports (with
songwriting credits going to Carla Bley).
Throughout the rest of the 1970s, Wyatt guested
with various acts, working with Henry Cow
(documented on their Henry Cow Concerts album),
Hatfield and the North, Carla Bley and Michael
Mantler. His solo work during the early 1980s was
increasingly politicised, and Wyatt became a member
of the Communist Party of Britain. In 1982, his
interpretation of Elvis Costello's Falklands
War-inspired song "Shipbuilding", the last in a
series of political cover-versions (collected as
Nothing Can Stop Us), reached number 35 in the UK
singles chart.
In the late 1980s, after collaborations with other
acts such as News from Babel as well as Japanese
recording artist Ryuichi Sakamoto, he and his wife
Alfreda Benge spent a sabbatical in Spain, before
returning in 1991 with a comeback album Dondestan,
considered by many to be his best work since Rock
Bottom. His 1997 album Shleep was also highly
acclaimed.
Wyatt contributed the haunting "Masters of the
Field", as well as "The Highest Gander", "La ForΩt
Rouge" and "Hors Champ" to the soundtrack of the
acclaimed 2001 film Winged Migration. He can be
seen in the DVD's Special Features section, and is
praised by the film's composer Bruno Coulais as
being a big influence in his younger days.
Recent years
In 2001, Wyatt was curator of the Meltdown
festival, and sang "Comfortably Numb" during David
Gilmour's performance at the festival, recorded on
Gilmour's DVD David Gilmour in Concert.
In 2003, Wyatt put out his album Cuckooland which
was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize.
In 2004, Wyatt collaborated with Bj÷rk on the song
"Submarine" which was released on her fifth album
Med·lla.
"He lives in Louth, Lincolnshire and he has
equipment in his bedroom where he records himself
and his albums. We brought a G4 and Pro Tools and
recorded it in like one afternoon. He's such an
extraordinary singer. Before he left, he insisted
to give us a scale of his voice, where he sings all
the tones û and he has the most amazing range, like
5 or 6 octaves. What's really interesting about his
range is that each octave is of a totally different
character. We actually ended up using that later
for "Oceania", we used what he calls the
'Wyattron'." ù Bj÷rk, XFM 25 August 2004
In 2006, Wyatt played with David Gilmour on
Gilmour's new release On An Island, singing and
playing cornet and percussion on "Then I Close My
Eyes." Wyatt performed as a guest at Gilmour's
series of Royal Albert Hall concerts, playing his
cornet solo for this song. Wyatt also read passages
from the novels of Haruki Murakami for Max
Richter's album Songs from Before.
In 2006, Wyatt collaberated with Steve Nieve and
Muriel Teodori on an opera "Welcome to the Voice".
Wyatt interprets the character 'the Friend', both
singing and playing pocket trumpet. "Welcome to the
Voice" is an opera in one unique scene, on the
street infront of an opera house. Robert's
contribution to the recording was recorded at Phil
Manzanera's home studio in North London. "Welcome
to the Voice" is released in May on Deutsche
Grammophon, and the recording features Robert
Wyatt, Barbara Bonney, Sting, Amanda Roocroft,
Elvis Costello, Nathalie Manfrino, Brodsky Quartet,
Sara Fulgoni, Ned Rothenberg, Antoine Quessada,
Marc Ribot, Steve Nieve and Muriel Teodori.
In March 2007, it was announced that Wyatt was
working on a solo album for release in the autumn.
By May, 2007, it transpired that Wyatt's new
release, tentatively titled Comic Opera, would be
released on the Domino Records label, a large
independent label housing such big indie stars as
Arctic Monkeys, Pavement, Neutral Milk Hotel and
Elliott Smith. The website of Domino stated: "it
will be released later on this year. We've heard it
once and it's sounding very good indeed. We are big
fans of Robert's work here so this is a happy day
for us."
"Wyatting"
Recently the verb "Wyatting", named obviously after
Robert Wyatt, appeared in some blogs and music
magazines to describe the practice of playing weird
tracks on a pub jukebox to annoy the other pub
goers. The name was coined by Carl Neville, a
36-year-old English teacher from London, because
one of the favourites LPs for this effect is
Dondestan.
Robert Wyatt was quoted in The Guardian: as saying
"I think it's really funny," and "I'm very honoured
at the idea of becoming a verb."[1] However, when
asked if he would ever try it himself, he said "Oh
no. I don't really like disconcerting people.
Although often when I try to be normal I disconcert
anyway."