Comicopera

Last updated

Comicopera
Wyatt-comicopera-cover.jpg
Studio album by
Released2007
Genre Progressive rock, experimental rock, jazz-rock, Canterbury sound, worldbeat
Length1:00:15
Label Domino Recording Company
Producer Robert Wyatt
Robert Wyatt chronology
Theatre Royal Drury Lane 8th September 1974
(2005)
Comicopera
(2007)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [1]
musicOMH.comStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [2]
NME (8/10) [3]
Pitchfork Media (7.5/10) [4]
RockfeedbackStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [5]
Twisted EarStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [6]

Comicopera is the final album by Robert Wyatt, released on 8 October 2007 and available on both CD and double vinyl formats. The vinyl's fourth side contains no music and has a poem etched into its surface. It is Wyatt's first release on the Domino Records label. It features many other musicians, including Brian Eno, Paul Weller, Gilad Atzmon and Phil Manzanera, and was recorded in Wyatt's house and Manzanera's recording studio. The song "Del Mondo" is a cover from Ko de mondo, the second album of Italian post-punk band Consorzio Suonatori Indipendenti. [7]

Contents

The Wire named Comicopera the record of the year in its annual critics' poll. [8]

Track listing

Act One: Lost in Noise

  1. "Stay Tuned" (Anja Garbarek) – 3:49
  2. "Just as You Are" (Alfreda Benge, Wyatt) – 4:21
  3. "You You" (Alfreda Benge, Wyatt) – 4:22
  4. "A.W.O.L." (Alfreda Benge, Wyatt) – 2:56
  5. "Anachronist" (Wyatt) – 3:28

Act Two: The Here and the Now

  1. "A Beautiful Peace" (Wyatt, Brian Eno) – 2:27
  2. "Be Serious" (Wyatt) – 2:56
  3. "On the Town Square" (Wyatt) – 5:26
  4. "Mob Rule" (Wyatt) – 2:16
  5. "A Beautiful War" (Wyatt, Brian Eno) – 2:40
  6. "Out of the Blue" (Alfreda Benge, Wyatt) – 3:41

Act Three: Away With the Fairies

  1. "Del Mondo" (Giovanni Lindo Ferretti, Massimo Zamboni, Gianni Maroccolo, Francesco Magnelli, Giorgio Canali) – 3:29
  2. "Cancion de Julieta" (Federico García Lorca, Wyatt) – 7:32
  3. "Pastafari" (Orphy Robinson) – 4:37
  4. "Fragment" (Alfreda Benge, Wyatt) – 1:38
  5. "Hasta Siempre Comandante" (Carlos Puebla) – 4:37

Personnel

Related Research Articles

<i>Before and After Science</i> 1977 studio album by Brian Eno

Before and After Science is the fifth studio album by English musician Brian Eno. Produced by Eno and Rhett Davies, it was originally released by Polydor Records in December 1977 in the United Kingdom and by Island U.S. soon after. Musicians from England, Canada and Germany collaborated on the album, including Fred Frith of Henry Cow, Phil Manzanera of Roxy Music, Paul Rudolph of Hawkwind, Andy Fraser of Free, Dave Mattacks of Fairport Convention, Jaki Liebezeit of Can, and Dieter Moebius and Roedelius of Cluster. Over one hundred tracks were written with only ten making the album's final cut. The musical styles of the album range from energetic and jagged to languid and pastoral.

Robert Wyatt

Robert Wyatt is an English retired musician. A founding member of the influential Canterbury scene bands Soft Machine and Matching Mole, he was initially a kit drummer and singer before becoming paraplegic following an accidental fall from a window in 1973, which led him to abandon band work, explore other instruments, and begin a forty-year solo career.

Phil Manzanera

Phillip Geoffrey Targett-Adams, known professionally as Phil Manzanera, is an English musician and record producer. He was the lead guitarist with Roxy Music, 801, and Quiet Sun. In 2006 Manzanera co-produced David Gilmour's album On an Island and played in Gilmour's band for tours in Europe and North America. He wrote and presented a series of 14 one-hour radio programmes for station Planet Rock entitled The A-Z of Great Guitarists.

Gilad Atzmon

Gilad Atzmon is a British jazz saxophonist, novelist, political activist, and writer. He has been described by scholars and anti-racism activists as antisemitic and a Holocaust denier.

Quiet Sun

Quiet Sun were an English progressive rock/jazz fusion band from the Canterbury scene consisting of Phil Manzanera (guitars), Bill MacCormick (bass), Dave Jarrett (keyboards) and Charles Hayward (drums).

<i>Rock Bottom</i> (album) 1974 studio album by Robert Wyatt

Rock Bottom is the second solo album by former Soft Machine drummer Robert Wyatt. It was released on 26 July 1974 by Virgin Records. The album was produced by Pink Floyd's drummer Nick Mason, and was recorded following a 1973 accident which left Wyatt a paraplegic. He enlisted musicians including Ivor Cutler, Hugh Hopper, Richard Sinclair, Laurie Allan, Mike Oldfield and Fred Frith in the recording.

<i>Cuckooland</i> 2003 studio album by Robert Wyatt

Cuckooland is the eighth studio album by jazz rock artist Robert Wyatt. It was released in 2003 on Hannibal Records. The artwork is by Alfreda Benge. The Wire named Cuckooland the record of the year in its annual critics' poll.

<i>Shleep</i> 1997 studio album by Robert Wyatt

Shleep is the seventh album by Canterbury scene and progressive rock veteran and musician Robert Wyatt, released in 1997.

<i>801 Live</i> 1976 live album by 801

801 Live is the first live album by 801. It was originally released by Island Records in the UK in November 1976. It was subsequently released by Polydor Records in North America in March 1978.

<i>Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard</i> 1975 studio album by Robert Wyatt

Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard is the third solo album by Robert Wyatt.

<i>Nerve Net</i> 1992 studio album by Brian Eno

Nerve Net is the twelfth solo studio album by English musician Brian Eno. It marked a return to more rock-oriented material, mixed with heavily syncopated rhythms, experimental electronic compositions and occasional elements of jazz. The ambient sensibility is still present on several tracks, though it is often darker and moodier than the pieces Eno is best known for.

<i>Old Rottenhat</i> 1985 studio album by Robert Wyatt

Old Rottenhat is the fourth studio album by Robert Wyatt. It was released in November 1985, and in 1993 it was reissued in its entirety as part of the CD Mid-Eighties. The album was produced and performed solo by Wyatt, and is dedicated to Michael Bettaney, a UK MI5 intelligence officer who in 1984 was convicted for acting as an agent-in-place for the Soviet Union.

<i>Elements</i> (Steve Howe album) Steve Howe album

Elements is the thirteenth solo studio album by guitarist Steve Howe.

<i>Diamond Head</i> (Phil Manzanera album) 1975 studio album by Phil Manzanera

Diamond Head is the first studio album by the rock artist Phil Manzanera. It was released in 1975, originally on Island Records in the UK and in the US on Atco Records. The sound quality on the US album was deemed to be worse than the UK album, so the UK import became a popular seller in the speciality record shops who sold Roxy Music and other UK bands. The diesel locomotive featured on the cover art is a EMD E9.

<i>Dondestan</i>

Dondestan is the fifth studio album by Robert Wyatt, originally released in 1991 on Rough Trade Records. The title is a phonetic rendition of the Spanish expression "Donde están", i.e. "Where are they". The cover art is by Wyatt's wife, Alfreda Benge.

<i>Journey to the Urge Within</i> 1986 studio album by Courtney Pine

Journey to the Urge Within is the debut album by English saxophonist Courtney Pine. It was released on the Verve label in 1986.

Dance of the Idiots is the first Koby Israelite album to be released on the Tzadik Records imprint in 2003.

<i>The Songs of Robert Wyatt and Antony & the Johnsons</i> 2011 live album by the Unthanks

The Songs of Robert Wyatt and Antony & the Johnsons, the fifth album by English folk group the Unthanks and the first to be recorded live, was released on 28 November 2011. Its extended title is: Diversions Vol. 1: The Songs of Robert Wyatt and Antony & the Johnsons: Live from the Union Chapel, London.

<i>Someday World</i> 2014 studio album by Eno • Hyde

Someday World is a collaboration album by English musician Brian Eno and Karl Hyde, of British electronic group Underworld, released on 5 May 2014. The album features a number of supporting musicians, including Coldplay's Will Champion, John Reynolds and Andy Mackay of Roxy Music, and was produced by Brian Eno with 20-year-old Fred Gibson.

References

  1. Jurek, Thom. Comicopera at AllMusic
  2. musicOHM review
  3. NME (10/06/2007, p.45)
  4. Pitchfork Media review
  5. Rockfeedback review
  6. Twisted Ear review
  7. Chris Jones, A national treasure makes another peerless album, BBC, 5 October 2007.
  8. "2007 Rewind: Records of the Year Top Ten" . The Wire. No. 287. London. January 2008. p. 36 via Exact Editions.