Soft machine

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Soft Machine 2018

Soft Machine is a British band that was one of the pioneers of the Canterbury sound . It was formed in Canterbury in England in 1966 and initially played a central role in the music scene.

Band biography

The Soft Machine was the title of a novel by William S. Burroughs , after which the group was named. In its first incarnation it consisted of the Australian beatnik Daevid Allen (guitar), two members of the Wilde Flowers group : Kevin Ayers (bass) and Robert Wyatt (drums, vocals) as well as Mike Ratledge (keyboards), who was with Allen in 1962/63 , Wyatt and brothers Brian and Hugh Hopper had made music and performed live. Allen had met Burroughs in Paris and was given permission to use the group name.

From foundation to third

From the beginning, Soft Machine relied on its own artistic concept. They experimented with light shows and tape collages. The first demo recordings were made, which were only released in 1981 on the album At the Beginning . The recordings made at this time were musically still very much in the compact format of common pop songs. The guitarist Andy Summers also played briefly , but soon left the band. When Daevid Allen was refused entry to Great Britain after an engagement in France , he stayed in France and founded Gong , Soft Machine recorded their first LP as a trio, The Soft Machine (1968).

Soft Machine was one of the house bands of the legendary UFO Club in London in 1967 and 1968 , where they often performed with Pink Floyd .

After an extensive tour of the United States , on which they appeared as the opening act for Jimi Hendrix , Kevin Ayers left the band. A replacement was sought and found: Hugh Hopper , who had previously been the band's roadie . In addition, his brother Brian, also a member of the Wilde Flowers, played the saxophonist. Hugh's expressive playing on bass and his qualities as a composer shaped the band for a long time. The second album was recorded in this line-up in 1969: Volume Two . Characteristic compared to the previous album, typical jazz harmonics , odd metrics and, thanks to Hugh Hopper, a denser rhythm section came to the fore. At around the same time, Soft Machine dropped the "The" in the band name.

The group was briefly reinforced by jazz pianist Keith Tippett and three musicians from his band: Mark Charig (trumpet), Nick Evans (slide trombone) and Elton Dean (alto saxophone), who became the fourth permanent member. In this formation some concerts were played and part of the third album Third was recorded. This double album received critical acclaim and also shows the group's evolution towards more complex rhythms and extended instrumental pieces. Together with Miles Davis ' Bitches Brew, it is considered to be one of the most important early documents of the fusion of jazz and rock and the best record of the band. In 2007 Sony BMG released a remastered CD version with a revised sound and a live bonus CD with BBC recordings that had previously been released in 1988 with the title Live at the Proms 1970 .

Disintegration from 1972

The music drifted more and more towards jazz , which led to internal controversy. Robert Wyatt, who would have liked to have brought in more vocals, left the band in 1972 after the fourth album, which was simply called 4 , was made exclusively in the studio and only contained instrumentals. Charig and Evans came back for the recordings, but also Roy Babbington (double bass), Jimmy Hastings (alto flute and bass clarinet) and Alan Skidmore (tenor saxophone). The result was almost a kind of big band sound with influences from John Coltrane's music and European free jazz . This album also received high acclaim from music critics. Wyatt, however, founded Matching Mole in 1971 . With the name, a Frenchized corruption ( machine molle ) of Soft Machine , he also articulated the band's old claim not to separate music and vocals.

The two LP sides of the fifth album 5 were recorded with two different drummers: First came Phil Howard , with whom they performed in the fall of 1971 at the Donaueschinger Musiktage . He left the group after a short time, and John Marshall came as his successor . With this album Soft Machine consistently continued on the path they had chosen. All pieces are instrumental with sometimes complicated rhythm and harmony changes.

Through John Marshall, the music developed in the direction of jazz rock. This, in turn, was not in the spirit of Elton Dean: he left the group in 1972. His place was taken by oboist, saxophonist and keyboardist Karl Jenkins of Ian Carrs Nucleus . The resulting double album Six already showed a strong influence from Marshall and the newly added Jenkins.

In 1973 Hugh Hopper also left the ensemble. His successor Roy Babbington, who had already played a double bass on the fourth album in addition to Hopper's electric bass, was now the only bass player to take part from the recordings of the seventh album Seven . The change in the direction of fusion was now finally complete, the pieces were again shorter and rhythmically more straightforward.

With the next album Bundles (1975) Allan Holdsworth added another melody instrument with his energetic guitar playing Soft Machines Sound; the album is sometimes reminiscent of John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra . On Softs (1976) Holdsworth was replaced by John Etheridge and Jenkins by Alan Wakeman ; after the release of this album, Mike Ratledge, the last founding member left the group.

Soft Machine never officially broke up, but activities became more and more sporadic. In 1978 Alive and Well was released , which arose from concerts with the same title, but after the pure studio recording Land of Cockayne (1981), which despite its prominent participation ( Jack Bruce on bass) was not well received by the critics or the audience, Soft Machine presented the Operation finally closed.

From 1985 some recordings of older concerts appeared.

Reorganization from 1999

After a long break, the band formed in 1999 under the name Soft Ware with Elton Dean, Hugh Hopper, John Marshall and Keith Tippett. In 2002 Tippett left, Allan Holdsworth came on, and the band went by the name Soft Works . After another renaming to Soft Machine Legacy "the band played from fall 2004 in the line-up of Elton Dean, Hugh Hopper, John Marshall and John Etheridge and released three albums: Live in Zaandam (2005) and the studio album Soft Machine Legacy (2006) as well the live DVD Live at the New Morning (2006). After Elton Dean's death in February 2006, now plays Theo Travis with. This occupation published in August 2007, in December 2006 in the studio of Jon Hiseman recorded album Steam . 2008 Roy Babbington played for Hugh Hopper's illness replaced Bass, after Hopper's death in 2009 he replaced him.

The WDR produced a recording on the occasion of the 26th Leverkusener Jazztage on November 22, 2005; a half-hour excerpt from it was broadcast in mid-January 2006 in the Jazzline series . Although Soft Machine Legacy is actually Soft Machine and the band was usually announced by concert and festival organizers ( e.g. at Zappanale 2006) under this name, the members do without their old name.

Again "Soft Machine" from 2016

In 2016 the band decided to forego the “Legacy” in their name and to call themselves “Soft Machine” again from now on. According to Travis, there was no legal requirement for the name addition until then.

Discography

Studio albums

  • 1968: The Soft Machine
  • 1969: Volume Two
  • 1970: Third
  • 1971: Fourth
  • 1972: Fifth
  • 1973: Six
  • 1973: Seven
  • 1975: Bundles
  • 1976: Softs
  • 1981: Land of Cockayne
  • 2003: Abracadabra (as Soft Works)
  • 2018: Hidden details

Live albums and compilations

  • 1967: Jet-Propelled Photographs (Demo)
  • 1971: Live at Henie Onstad Art Center 1971 ( Reel Recordings )
  • 1977: Triple Echo
  • 1978: Alive and Well

Soft Machine Legacy
studio albums

  • 2006: Soft Machine Legacy
  • 2007: Steam
  • 2013: Burden of Proof

Live albums

  • 2006: Live in Zaandam
  • 2010: Live Adventures
  • 2020: Live at the Baked Potato

Occupations


Filmography

literature

Web links

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  1. ↑ Udo Gerhards, Achim Breiling: Reviews of “Third”. In: Baby Blue Pages . Retrieved September 8, 2016.
  2. ^ Tentative Review by The Christopher Currie: Soft Machine - Third. (No longer available online.) June 2, 2001, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on March 5, 2014 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.tranglos.com
  3. ^ Achim Breiling: Reviews on "Soft Machine: Live at the Proms 1970". In: Baby Blue Pages . Retrieved September 8, 2016.
  4. ↑ John Kelman: Review of the Sony Remaster New Releases of "Third", "4", "5", "Six" and "Seven". In: allaboutjazz.com. February 28, 2007, accessed September 8, 2016.
  5. ^ Achim Breiling: Soft Machine, Drop. In: Baby Blue Pages . Retrieved September 8, 2016.
  6. ↑ Udo Gerhards: The Soft Machine Legacy. In: Baby Blue Pages . Retrieved September 8, 2016.
  7. ^ Roy Babbington. In: calyx.fr. Retrieved September 8, 2016.
  8. ^ Roy Babbington. In: jazzwisemagazine.com. Archived from the original on April 24, 2009 ; accessed on September 8, 2016 .
  9. ^ Soft Machine Legacy. ( Memento of the original from April 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: johnetheridge.com. Retrieved September 8, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.johnetheridge.com
  10. ↑ Volkmar Mantei: Concert report Zappanale # 17. Retrieved March 5, 2014 .
  11. ↑ “ Legally we could actually be called Soft Machine but for various reasons it was decided to be one step removed. ”( Theo Travis : Cherry Red Records: My Favorite Flavor , issue 28/2013, page 11, German:“ From a legal point of view, we could actually call ourselves Soft Machine, but for various reasons we decided not to take this step. ”)
  12. ↑ Soft Machine In: johnetheridge.com. Retrieved September 18, 2018