Robert Wyatt

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Robert Wyatt, 2006

Robert Wyatt (born January 28, 1945 in Bristol ; actually Robert Ellidge ) is an English singer and drummer .

Live and act

After his engagement with the mid-sixties music group Wilde Flowers from Canterbury , Robert Wyatt co-founded Soft Machine in 1966 . Soft Machine, along with Caravan and Gong , soon became one of the cornerstones of the so-called Canterbury School of Progressive Rock and Artrock . In addition to the early psychedelic rock , influences from jazz and the broader area of classical music (including Erik Satie ) quickly emerged , and improvisations and compositions complemented one another . Wyatt's drumming (and vocals) contributed significantly to the band's reputation, which at times matched the fame of the early Pink Floyd . Wyatt toured with Soft Machine a. a. as opening act for the Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1968 through the USA .

Robert Wyatt, 1967

As early as 1970 he released the solo album The End of an Ear , which was created alongside his band collaboration . In the fall of 1971, Robert Wyatt separated from Soft Machine and started his own Matching Mole project . The name of this new formation was a reference to the French translation of Soft Machine, "Machine Molle". After the second album, which was produced by Robert Fripp and contributed to the Brian Eno synthesizer, he broke up the band. At that time Wyatt was considered one of the best drummers in jazz rock and was invited to festivals and record productions in Germany ( New Violin Summit with Jean-Luc Ponty , Michal Urbaniak and Terje Rypdal ).

In 1973, Wyatt fell out the window of a multi-story house at a party. He has been paraplegic ever since . While still in the hospital, he began to compose the pieces for the new album Rock Bottom . Despite the reservations of TV officials, he was soon able to resume his appearances on TV music shows. Most of his pieces convey a dark, intense listening experience. The criticism speaks of "warming outsider ballads". Wyatt not only uses his fragile, multi-octave voice to reproduce his associative texts, he also shows himself to be keen to experiment in the use of his singing as an instrument. Alienation or multiple tracks create new worlds of sound.

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

In 1993 Wyatt wrote three tracks for the electronica band Ultramarine for the album United Kingdoms and also contributed the vocals for two. One of the tracks, the single Kingdom , hit the UK charts. The composer and trumpeter Michael Mantler regularly brings Wyatt to perform his works as a singer. As a singer, Wyatt was also involved in Nick Mason's Fictitious Sports album . Wyatt's 1997 solo album Shleep was co-produced by Brian Eno. He sang Kurt Weill's September song for Pascal Comelade .

In 2001 there was a collaboration with the French director Jacques Perrin , for whose documentary Nomaden der Lüfte - The Secret of the Migratory Birds Wyatt composed and sang a few pieces. On June 22, 2001 he performed at a concert by David Gilmour at the Royal Festival Hall in London (England). He took over a vocal part of the piece Comfortably Numb . In 2004 a collaboration with Björk followed . In 2006 he played the cornet at a David Gilmour concert at London's Royal Albert Hall for the piece Then I Close My Eyes . At the 2008 German Jazz Festival in Frankfurt , he curated an evening where groups around Max Nagl , John Greaves , Hélène Labarrière and Annie Whitehead interpreted his songs. In 2009 he performed with the Liberation Music Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall.

In May 2009 the French Orchester National de Jazz released the double album Around Robert Wyatt with 15 older songs by Wyatt, in which he participated as a singer on six pieces.

Wyatt lived in Spain for a few years but is now back in Lincolnshire . He is married to Alfreda Benge , who painted the cover illustrations for most of his solo albums and occasionally contributes lyrics to his songs. She sings with him on his eighth solo album, Comicopera (2007).

Ryūichi Sakamoto once called Wyatt "the saddest voice in the world".

Discography (excerpts)

With soft machine

  • Jet Propelled Photographs (demo footage 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 ( CBS 1970)
  • Rock Bottom ( Virgin , 1974)
  • Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard (Virgin, 1975)
  • The Animals Film ( Rough Trade , 1982)
  • Nothing Can Stop Us (Rough Trade, 1982) see also: Strange Fruit
  • 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)
  • Theater Royal Drury Lane 8th September 1974 (Recorded live 1974, Dominoes , 2005)
  • Comic Opera (Domino, 2007)
  • with Gilad Atzmon and Ros Stephen: For the Ghosts Within (Domino, 2010)
  • Different Every Time (compilation, Domino 2014)

literature

  • Michael King: Wrong Movements. A Robert Wyatt History. London 1994, ISBN 0-946719-10-1 .
  • Marcus O'Dair: Different every time. The authorized biography of Robert Wyatt . Serpent's Tail, London 2014, ISBN 978-1-84668-759-4 .

Web links

Commons : Robert Wyatt  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chart sources: Ultramarine - Kingdom at chartsurfer.de, accessed on September 20, 2013
  2. ↑ Chris Jones: BBC Review of Around Robert Wyatt
  3. ↑ Karl Bruckmaier : The saddest voice in the world, in: Süddeutsche Zeitung No. 22, January 28, 2015, p. 12.
personal data
SURNAME Wyatt, Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ellidge, Robert (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English musician
DATE OF BIRTH January 28, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH Bristol , UK