Robert Wyatt

Robert Wyatt (* as Robert Ellidge January 28, 1945 in Bristol ) is an English singer and drummer.

Life and work

After his involvement with the mid - Sixties music group Wild Flowers of Canterbury Robert Wyatt in 1966 was co-founder of Soft Machine. Soft Machine was, next to Caravan and Gong, now the cornerstones of the so-called Canterbury school of progressive rock and art rock. In addition to the psychedelic rock of the beginnings of influences from jazz and classical music (including Erik Satie ) were quickly out, improvisations and compositions complemented each other. Wyatt contributed about drums ( and vocals) essential to the reputation of the band at that zoom handed temporarily to the glory of the early Pink Floyd. Wyatt toured with Soft Machine, inter alia, as the opening act of the Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1968 by the United States.

As early as 1970 he published the - resulting alongside his band employees - solo album The End of an Ear. In the fall of 1971, Robert Wyatt separated from Soft Machine and Matching Mole founded his own project. The name of this new lineup was a nod to the French translation of Soft Machine, " Machine Molle ." After their second album ( which was produced by Robert Fripp and Brian Eno to the synthesizer contributed ), but he broke the band up again. At that time it was Wyatt as one of the best drummers of jazz rock and had been found to festivals and record productions invited to Germany (New Violin Summit with, inter alia, Jean -Luc Ponty, Michal Urbaniak and Terje Rypdal ).

1973 crashed Wyatt at a party from a window of a multi-storey building. He has since become a paraplegic. Still in the hospital, he began to compose the songs for the new album Rock Bottom. Despite the reservations of TV executives he could be back soon to continue his performances in musical shows of television. Most of his pieces convey a dark, intense listening experience. The criticism speaks of " Outsider warming ballads ". Wyatt continues his fragile, multiple -octave voice not only to the reproduction of his associative lyrics, he is also keen to experiment in the use of his singing as an instrument that evokes new worlds of sound according to technical alteration or duplication.

For his solo albums, he was able to acquire numerous young musicians from the Canterbury scene, including the 19 -year-old Mike Oldfield, who ( which was produced by Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason) is heard as a guitarist on Wyatt's 1974 release Rock Bottom, and Fred Frith. A particular success achieved Wyatt with a cover version of the Monkees hit I'm a Believer, with which he reached number 29 on the UK Singles Charts. The multi-instrumentalist is committed to the Marxist left, coverte various political liberation songs and hymns, played a singles to support the Namibia - aid and striking British miners. In 1983, he commented on the Falklands War with the book written by Elvis Costello song Shipbuilding.

1993 Wyatt wrote for the album United Kingdoms Electronica band Ultramarine three pieces and drove for two and singing at. One of the pieces, the single from the album Kingdom, reached the British charts. The composer and trumpeter Michael Mantler bring Wyatt regularly as a singer to performances of his works. As a singer, Wyatt was also involved in the album Nick Mason's Fictitious Sports. Wyatt's solo album Shleep of 1997 was co-produced by Brian Eno. For Pascal Comelade he sang Kurt Weill's September Song.

2001 resulted in a collaboration with the French director Jacques Perrin, whose documentary Winged Migration - The Secret of the migratory birds Wyatt composed some pieces and sang. On 22 June 2001, he performed at a concert by David Gilmour at the Royal Festival Hall, London, England. He took a singing part of the play Comfortably Numb. 2004 resulted in a collaboration with Björk. In 2006, he played at a concert of David Gilmour at London's Royal Albert Hall with the piece Then I Close My Eyes cornet. At the German Jazz Festival Frankfurt 2008 he curated an evening on which groups to Max Nagl, John Greaves, Hélène Labarrière and Annie Whitehead interpreted his songs. In 2009 he joined the Liberation Music Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall on.

In May 2009, the French Orchestre National de Jazz released the double album Around Robert Wyatt with 15 older songs by Wyatt; he acts on 6 pieces as a singer.

Wyatt lived for several years in Spain, but now lives again in Lincolnshire. He is married to Alfreda Benge, who painted the cover illustrations of most of his solo albums and occasionally contributes lyrics to his songs. On his eighth solo album Comic Opera ( 2007) she sings with him.

Discography (excerpts)

With Soft Machine

  • Jet Propelled Photographs ( demo recordings from 1967 )
  • The Soft Machine (1968 )
  • Volume Two (1969 )
  • Third ( 1970)
  • Fourth (1971)

With Matching Mole

  • Matching Mole (1972 )
  • Little Red Record ( 1972)
  • Smoke Signal (2001, recorded 1972)
  • March (2002, live recordings from 1972 )

Solo albums

  • The End of an Ear (CBS1970)
  • Rock Bottom (Virgin, 1974)
  • Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard (Virgin, 1975)
  • The Animals film ( Rough Trade, 1982)
  • Work in Progress (EP, Rough Trade, 1984)
  • Old Rottenhat ( Rough Trade, 1985)
  • Dondestan ( Rough Trade, 1991)
  • A Short Break ( EP, Voiceprint, 1992)
  • Mid- Eighties ( Compilation, Rough Trade, 1993)
  • Going Back a Bit ( compilation, Virgin, 1994)
  • Flotsam Jetsam ( Compilation, Rough Trade, 1994)
  • Shleep ( Hannibal, 1997)
  • Solar Flares Burn for You ( Compilation, Cuneiform, 2003)
  • Cuckooland ( Hannibal, 2003)
  • Comic Opera ( Domino, 2007)
  • Gilad Atzmon and Ros Stephen with: For the Ghosts Within ( Domino, 2010)
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