(Canterbury Rock) Robert Wyatt - EPs (1999) 5-CD Box - 2000, FLAC (tracks)

Robert Wyatt (born Robert Wyatt-Ellidge, 28 January 1945, in Bristol) is an English

musician, and founding member of the influential Canterbury scene band Soft Machine.

He is married to English painter and songwriter Alfreda Benge.Contents [hide]
1 Early life
2 Soft Machine and Matching Mole
3 Solo career
4 Recent years
4.1 "Wyatting"
5 Solo discography
5.1 Albums
5.2 EPs
5.3 Singles
6 Contributions to other people's recordings
7 Bibliography
8 References
9 External links

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 also 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 Daevid 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 and drumming at the JazzFest Berlin's New Violin Summit, a live

concert with violinists Jean-Luc Ponty, Don "Sugarcane" Harris, Michał Urbaniak and

Nipso Brantner, guitarist Terje Rypdal, keyboardist Wolfgang Dauner and bassist

Neville Whitehead[1], formed his own band Matching Mole (a pun on "machine molle",

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 July 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 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 £10,000 for Wyatt.

[edit]
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 best 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, including Henry

Cow (documented on their Henry Cow Concerts album), Hatfield and the North, Carla

Bley, Michael Mantler, and Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera, contributing lead

vocals to lead track "Frontera", from Manzanera's 1975 solo debut Diamond Head. His

solo work during the early 1980s was increasingly politicised, and Wyatt became a

member of the Communist Party of Great 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.

In 1999 he collaborated with the Italian singer Cristina Donà on her second album

Nido. In the summer of 2000 her first EP Goccia was released and Wyatt made an

appearance in the video of the title track.

Wyatt contributed the haunting "Masters of the Field", as well as "The Highest

Gander", "La Forêt 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.

The Tears for Fears song "I Believe" from Songs from the Big Chair (1985) is

reportedly dedicated to Wyatt; the video features Roland Orzabal sitting shirtless in

an arm chair for most of the video to mimic Wyatt's paralysis.

[edit]
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 Björk on the song "Submarine" which was released on

her fifth album Medúlla.
"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 – 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'." — Björk, 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 collaborated 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

in front 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.

On 23 June 2006 BBC Four broadcast a programme entitled "Free Will and Testament"

which featured performance footage of Wyatt with other musicians including Ian

Maidman and Liam Genocky, together with interviews with John Peel, Brian Eno, Annie

Whitehead, Alfie and Robert Wyatt himself.[2]

In March 2007, it was announced that Wyatt was working on a new solo album entitled

Comicopera. It was released in October 2007 on the Domino Records label, a large

independent label housing such big indie stars as Arctic Monkeys, Pavement, Neutral

Milk Hotel and Elliott Smith.

In summer 2007 Wyatt played cornet on "Then I Close My Eyes", in the David Gilmour

concert, Remember That Night: Live at the Royal Albert Hall.

"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."[3] 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."[4]

Solo discography

Albums
The End of an Ear (1970)
Rock Bottom (1974)
Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard (1975)
Nothing Can Stop Us (1981, Singles compilation; 1983 Australian edition includes

"Shipbuilding")
The Animals Film (1982, Soundtrack)
Old Rottenhat (1985)
Dondestan (1991)
Flotsam Jetsam (1994)
A Short Break (1996, EP)
Shleep (1997)
Dondestan (Revisited) (1998)
Solar Flares Burn for You (2003)
Cuckooland (2003)
His Greatest Misses (2004, compilation)
Theatre Royal Drury Lane 8th September 1974 (2005)
Comicopera (2007)

EPs
The Peel Sessions (1974, "Alifib"/"Soup Song"/"Sea Song"/"I'm a Believer")
Work In Progress (1984, "Biko"/"Amber and the Amberines"/"Yolanda"/"Te Recuerdo

Amanda")
4 Tracks EP (1984, "I'm a Believer"/"Yesterday Man"/"Team Spirit"/"Memories")
Airplay (2002, "Fridge"/"When Access Was a Noun "/"Salt-Ivy"/"Signed Curtain")

Singles
"I'm a Believer"/"Memories (song)" (1974)
"Yesterday Man"/"I'm a Believer" (1974)
"Yesterday Man"/"Sonia" (1977)
"Arauco"/"Caimanera" (1980)
"At Last I'm Free"/"Strange Fruit" (1980)
"Stalin Wasn't Stallin'"/"Stalingrad" (1981)
"Grass"/"Trade Union" (1981)
"Shipbuilding"/"Memories of You"/"'Round Midnight" (1982)
"The Wind of Change"/"Namibia"(1984) (as "Robert Wyatt with the SWAPO Singers")
"The Age of Self"/"Raise Your Banners High" (1984)
"Chairman Mao" (1987)
"Free Will and Testament"/"The Sight of the Wind" (1997)
"Heaps of Sheeps"/"A Sunday in Madrid" (1997)

Contributions to other people's recordings
Backing vocals on "Calyx" on Hatfield and the North's Hatfield and the North (1974)
Wyatt released an EP entitled Summer Into Winter in collaboration with Ben Watt

(1982)
Vocals on four tracks on News from Babel's Letters Home (1986)
Backing vocals on "I Keep Faith" on Billy Bragg's Mr. Love & Justice (2008)

EAC extraction logfile from 14. December 2007, 23:09 for CD
Robert Wyatt / EPS - Disc 1

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EAC extraction logfile from 14. December 2007, 23:50 for CD
Robert Wyatt / EPS - Disc 2

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EAC extraction logfile from 15. December 2007, 0:17 for CD
Robert Wyatt / EPS - Disc 3

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EAC extraction logfile from 15. December 2007, 1:03 for CD
Robert Wyatt / EPS - Disc 4

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EAC extraction logfile from 15. December 2007, 1:42 for CD
Robert Wyatt / EPS - Disc 5

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No errors occuredEnd of status report