| The End of an Ear | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Original album cover design | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 4 December 1970 | |||
| Recorded | August 1970 | |||
| Studio | Sound Techniques, Chelsea, London | |||
| Genre | Free jazz | |||
| Length | 47:02 | |||
| Label | CBS, Esoteric Recordings | |||
| Producer | Robert Wyatt | |||
| Robert Wyatt chronology | ||||
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| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [1] |
The End of an Ear is the debut solo album by Soft Machine's Robert Wyatt.
The album was recorded in August 1970, while Wyatt took a break from Soft Machine, the band he would leave the following year. [2] [3] Containing mostly free jazz and experimental music, the music has no lyrics, only vocal experimentation by Wyatt. [4] It includes Soft Machine's Elton Dean on saxophone and Caravan's Dave Sinclair (who, in 1971, would join Wyatt in the group Matching Mole) on organ. About half of the album is filled by a two-part cover of Gil Evans' "Las Vegas Tango". The track "To Carla, Marsha and Caroline (For Making Everything Beautifuller)" is based on the music of "Instant Pussy", a song Wyatt first recorded solo during a Soft Machine BBC session in late 1969 and which appeared, also in instrumental form, on Matching Mole's first album. [5]
The album was re-issued, in remastered form, with a booklet and fully restored artwork and essay, by Esoteric Recordings in July 2012. [6]
Paul Sexton of Prog magazine commented: "It begins with deranged, high-speed voices like something out of The Goon Show , in a vaguely Latin mood and set to discordant piano. It ends 47 minutes later having made barely a concession to the protocols of melody, lyrics or song construction. The debut solo album by Robert Wyatt was a law unto itself in 1970 and is just as enigmatic today." While Marcus O'Dair of Jazzwise magazine said, "At moments it sounds like free jazz, at others modernist sound collage, at one point, Hendrix's "Purple Haze"." [6]
All tracks composed by Robert Wyatt, except where indicated
The song titles refer to the following people or groups: Mark Ellidge (Wyatt's half brother), Bridget St John, Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth, Nick Evans, Caravan and Jimmy Hastings, Kevin Ayers' The Whole World, Carla Bley, Marsha Hunt and Caroline Coon.
Soft Machine are a British rock band from Canterbury formed in mid-1966 by Mike Ratledge, Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers and Daevid Allen. As a central band of the Canterbury scene, the group became one of the first British psychedelic acts and later moved into progressive rock and jazz fusion, becoming a purely instrumental band since 1971. The band has undergone many line-up changes, with musicians such as Andy Summers, Hugh Hopper, Elton Dean, John Marshall, Karl Jenkins, Roy Babbington and Allan Holdsworth being members during the band's history. The current line-up consists of John Etheridge, Theo Travis, Fred Thelonious Baker and Asaf Sirkis.
Kevin Ayers was an English singer-songwriter who was active in the English psychedelic music movement. Ayers was a founding member of the psychedelic band Soft Machine in the mid-1960s, and was closely associated with the Canterbury scene. He recorded a series of albums as a solo artist and over the years worked with Brian Eno, Syd Barrett, Bridget St John, John Cale, Elton John, Robert Wyatt, Andy Summers, Mike Oldfield, Nico and Ollie Halsall, among others. After living for many years in Deià, Mallorca, he returned to the United Kingdom in the mid-1990s before moving to the south of France. His last album, The Unfairground, was released in 2007. The British rock journalist Nick Kent wrote: "Kevin Ayers and Syd Barrett were the two most important people in British pop music. Everything that came after came from them."
Robert Wyatt is a retired English 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.
Carla Bley was an American jazz composer, pianist, organist, and bandleader. An important figure in the free jazz movement of the 1960s, she was perhaps best known for her jazz opera Escalator over the Hill, as well as a book of compositions that have been performed by many other artists, including Gary Burton, Jimmy Giuffre, George Russell, Art Farmer, Robert Wyatt, John Scofield, and her ex-husband Paul Bley. She was a pioneer in the development of independent artist-owned record labels, and recorded over two dozen albums between 1966 and 2019.
Matching Mole were an English progressive rock band associated with the Canterbury scene. Robert Wyatt formed the band in October 1971 after he left Soft Machine and recorded his first solo album, The End of an Ear. He continued his role on vocals and drums and was joined by David Sinclair of Caravan on organ and piano, Dave MacRae on electric piano, Phil Miller of Delivery on guitar and Bill MacCormick of Quiet Sun on bass. The name is a pun on Machine Molle, the French translation of the name of Wyatt's previous group Soft Machine.
Steve Swallow is an American jazz bassist and composer, known for his collaborations with Jimmy Giuffre, Gary Burton, and Carla Bley. He was one of the first jazz double bassists to switch entirely to electric bass guitar.
Hugh Colin Hopper was a British progressive rock and jazz fusion bass guitarist. He was a prominent member of the Canterbury scene, as a member of Soft Machine and other bands.
Nick Mason's Fictitious Sports is the debut solo album by Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason, released in May 1981 in the UK and the US. It was Mason's first major work outside of Pink Floyd. It is sung by Robert Wyatt, except for the opening song. All the songs were written by Carla Bley. The album was remastered and reissued on August 31, 2018 as part of the box set Unattended Luggage.
June 1, 1974 is a live album of songs performed at the Rainbow Theatre in London on the titular date. The album is officially attributed to all principal performers Kevin Ayers, John Cale, Brian Eno and Nico, although other well-known musicians, including Mike Oldfield, Robert Wyatt, and Ollie Halsall, also contributed to the concert. Davey 'Crabsticks' Trotter was asked to perform on the Mellotron but was unable to attend due to a previous booking.
Third is a live and studio album by the English rock band Soft Machine, released as their third overall in June 1970 by CBS Records. It is a double album with a single composition on each of the four sides, and was the first of two albums recorded with a four-piece line-up of keyboardist Mike Ratledge, drummer and vocalist Robert Wyatt, saxophonist Elton Dean, and bass guitarist Hugh Hopper. Third marks a shift in the group's sound from their psychedelic origins towards jazz rock and electronic music.
Elton Dean was an English jazz musician who performed on alto saxophone, saxello and occasionally keyboards. Part of the Canterbury scene, he featured in Soft Machine, among others.
The Soft Machine is the debut album by the British psychedelic rock band Soft Machine, released in 1968. It is the group's only album to feature Kevin Ayers as a member.
Fourth is the fourth studio album by the rock band Soft Machine, released in 1971. The album is also titled Four or 4 in the USA.
Fifth, is the fifth studio album by the jazz rock band Soft Machine, released in 1972. In the US the album was identified on cover and label by number (5).
Lewis Michael Soloff was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and actor.
Joy of a Toy is the debut solo album of Kevin Ayers, a founding member of Soft Machine. He is accompanied on the LP by pianist and arranger David Bedford as well as his erstwhile Soft Machine colleagues Robert Wyatt and Mike Ratledge, and his eventual replacement Hugh Hopper, who had previously worked with him in the semi-pro band Wilde Flowers. Among the session musicians are cellist and arranger Paul Buckmaster, jazz bassist Jeff Clyne, oboist Paul Minns and drummer Rob Tait.
"Singing a Song in the Morning" was the first solo single released by Kevin Ayers, one of the founding members of the band Soft Machine. It was issued three months after Ayers' debut solo LP Joy of a Toy, and the artist was credited on the record label as Kevin Ayers and the Whole World. Although the song was not included on the original Joy of a Toy album, the single's B-side, "Eleanor's Cake ", was on the album.
European Tour 1977 is an album by American composer, bandleader and keyboardist Carla Bley. Recorded in 1977 in Munich, Germany, it was released on the Watt/ECM label in 1978.
Dinner Music is an album by American composer, bandleader and keyboardist Carla Bley recorded in 1976 and released on the Watt/ECM label in 1977.
Mike Gibbs + Twelve play Gil Evans is an album by composer Mike Gibbs. It was released on 12 August 2013 on Whirlwind Recordings.
