Land of Cockayne (album)

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Land of Cockayne
LandCockayne.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedMarch 1981
RecordedJune & July 1980
Studio Pye Studios & Riverside Studios in London
Genre Jazz rock
Length43:51
Label EMI EMC 3348
Producer Mike Thorne
Soft Machine chronology
Alive & Well: Recorded in Paris
(1978)
Land of Cockayne
(1981)
Hidden Details
(2018)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [1]

Land of Cockayne is the tenth studio album by the jazz rock band Soft Machine, released in 1981. The title refers to the medieval land of plenty. It would be the last album released under the Soft Machine moniker until Hidden Details in 2018.

Contents

Overview

In 1979, Karl Jenkins, who had been a member of Soft Machine from May 1972 to the band's split in December 1978, was among a number of top UK session and jazz musicians put together as an ad hoc band called Rollercoaster to record a tribute album called Wonderin' (1980) featuring jazz-funk cover versions of Stevie Wonder songs. After the completion of that album, a number of the Rollercoaster musicians decided to record another album together, this time under the Soft Machine name. [2] Some of the musicians involved in the project would later be part of Soft Machine's next live line-up which played a six-night residency at Ronnie Scott's in 1984.

Track listing

All compositions by Karl Jenkins.

Side one

No.TitleLength
1."Over 'n' Above"7:24
2."Lotus Groves"4:57
3."Isle of the Blessed"1:56
4."Panoramania"7:07
5."Behind the Crystal Curtain"0:53

Side two

No.TitleLength
1."Palace of Glass"3:22
2."Hot-Biscuit Slim"7:27
3."(Black) Velvet Mountain"5:10
4."Sly Monkey"5:00
5."A Lot of What You Fancy..."0:35

Personnel

Soft Machine

Additional personnel

References

  1. "Soft Machine - Land of Cockayne (1981) album rating, user reviews, credits & releases | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved 25 July 2011.
  2. Bennett, Graham Soft Machine: Out-Bloody-Rageous SAF Publishing Ltd, 2005 ISBN   0-946719-84-5 ISBN   978-0-946719-84-6 at Google Books