Album: Comicopera
Artist: Robert Wyatt
Home: Louth, Lincolnshire
Released: October 2007
Genre: Psychedelic Jazz
Some of the best artists, from Matisse to Dylan and Kate Bush, don't see their talents diminish with age. Robert Wyatt has consistently produced wonderful music throughout his life (see 1974's Rock Bottom) but, of all his albums, this is my favourite. In fact, his late run of three albums -- Shleep (1997), Cuckooland (2003) and Comicopera -- is some of his finest work, even though his voice by this point had lost much of its upper range. To compensate, he gained some bottom range but his music also became more complex, characterised by a level of editing and layering that you might associate with films. This means it often can't be reproduced live very easily and other people find it almost impossible to cover Wyatt's music, given his chord changes and time signatures are so unorthodox. This all makes his music sound "difficult", but Wyatt has a pop sensibility and sense of humour that's often underappreciated. Another characteristic of his later music is the increasing involvement of his wife, Alfreda Benge ("Alfie"), who as well as being his muse and album cover creator, also co-wrote several songs on this album. Other collaborators on Comicopera include Brian Eno, saxophonist Gilad Atzmon, Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera, Paul Weller, trombonist Annie Whitehead and singer Monica Vasconcelos. The help create a heady mix of jazz, pop and art rock, three core components of Wyatt's sound. Referring to the album's three 20-minute acts, Wyatt said in an interview that the "first section [Lost In Noise] is at home, the second [The Here & Now] is out and about in the world, and the third [Away With The Fairies] is all over the place. It's not an opera in the classic sense. There's no real plan to it."
After a wonderful cover of Anja Garbarek's Stay Tuned, the moving Just As You Are is one of the record's finest moments, with Alfie's words dealing in a brutally honest way about Wyatt's drinking in the day (he's since battled his addiction at AA). The song is essentially about unconditional love and Weller's guitar playing and Vasconcelos' singing add to the emotional depth. Weller had already played on Wyatt's earlier records, Shleep and Cuckooland, and what connects the two is politics (both were active in Red Wedge) and a love of black American music (bebop and jazz for Wyatt, soul for Weller). The second section of the record is the most political, especially the Alfie-penned song, Out Of The Blue ("you've planted everlasting hatred in my heart"), which was apparently written in reaction to the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon, but addresses more universal themes of the horror of war and the cycle of violence. As well as playing keyboard bass on Out Of The Blue, Brian Eno also contributes musical fragments to two songs on this side, A Beautiful Peace and A Beautiful War. The sound of Beverly Chadwick's baritone saxophone is also a highlight. For the third section, Wyatt says that, "I just leave England for the last part of the record. I fly around the world and into the past, and surreal revolutionary fantasies fill my head." His decision to sing in other languages is mainly a musical one, allowing him access to a new world of vocal sounds, but his covers of songs by radical Italian post-punk outfit Consorzio Suonatori Indipendenti and Cuban communist Carlos Puebla, as well as a poem by visionary Spanish socialist Federico García Lorca, are also clearly motivated by politics too. He'd had to be called it, but Wyatt's a national treasure.
Some of the best artists, from Matisse to Dylan and Kate Bush, don't see their talents diminish with age. Robert Wyatt has consistently produced wonderful music throughout his life (see 1974's Rock Bottom) but, of all his albums, this is my favourite. In fact, his late run of three albums -- Shleep (1997), Cuckooland (2003) and Comicopera -- is some of his finest work, even though his voice by this point had lost much of its upper range. To compensate, he gained some bottom range but his music also became more complex, characterised by a level of editing and layering that you might associate with films. This means it often can't be reproduced live very easily and other people find it almost impossible to cover Wyatt's music, given his chord changes and time signatures are so unorthodox. This all makes his music sound "difficult", but Wyatt has a pop sensibility and sense of humour that's often underappreciated. Another characteristic of his later music is the increasing involvement of his wife, Alfreda Benge ("Alfie"), who as well as being his muse and album cover creator, also co-wrote several songs on this album. Other collaborators on Comicopera include Brian Eno, saxophonist Gilad Atzmon, Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera, Paul Weller, trombonist Annie Whitehead and singer Monica Vasconcelos. The help create a heady mix of jazz, pop and art rock, three core components of Wyatt's sound. Referring to the album's three 20-minute acts, Wyatt said in an interview that the "first section [Lost In Noise] is at home, the second [The Here & Now] is out and about in the world, and the third [Away With The Fairies] is all over the place. It's not an opera in the classic sense. There's no real plan to it."
After a wonderful cover of Anja Garbarek's Stay Tuned, the moving Just As You Are is one of the record's finest moments, with Alfie's words dealing in a brutally honest way about Wyatt's drinking in the day (he's since battled his addiction at AA). The song is essentially about unconditional love and Weller's guitar playing and Vasconcelos' singing add to the emotional depth. Weller had already played on Wyatt's earlier records, Shleep and Cuckooland, and what connects the two is politics (both were active in Red Wedge) and a love of black American music (bebop and jazz for Wyatt, soul for Weller). The second section of the record is the most political, especially the Alfie-penned song, Out Of The Blue ("you've planted everlasting hatred in my heart"), which was apparently written in reaction to the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon, but addresses more universal themes of the horror of war and the cycle of violence. As well as playing keyboard bass on Out Of The Blue, Brian Eno also contributes musical fragments to two songs on this side, A Beautiful Peace and A Beautiful War. The sound of Beverly Chadwick's baritone saxophone is also a highlight. For the third section, Wyatt says that, "I just leave England for the last part of the record. I fly around the world and into the past, and surreal revolutionary fantasies fill my head." His decision to sing in other languages is mainly a musical one, allowing him access to a new world of vocal sounds, but his covers of songs by radical Italian post-punk outfit Consorzio Suonatori Indipendenti and Cuban communist Carlos Puebla, as well as a poem by visionary Spanish socialist Federico García Lorca, are also clearly motivated by politics too. He'd had to be called it, but Wyatt's a national treasure.
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