August 2024
Cuneiform Records Rune 530/531/532/533
Format: LP
Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment
Since 1996, Cuneiform Records has released quite a few previously unavailable recordings by the English prog-rock band Soft Machine. Most of them have been live albums sourced from soundboard recordings, or from performances filmed for European television. Two years ago, Cuneiform released Facelift France & Holland, containing recordings of 1970 live shows by a short-lived quintet version of the band. Last year, the label unveiled The Dutch Lesson, a 1973 performance in Rotterdam by the group’s second quartet lineup.
Cuneiform’s newest Soft Machine archive release, Høvikodden 1971, documents performances by the group on the weekend of February 27 and 28, 1971, at Henie Onstad Kundstsenter in Oslo, Norway. Available as a four-CD or four-LP set, the album is the crowning achievement of Cuneiform’s catalog of Soft Machine recordings. The Sunday evening show has been available since 2009 as Live at Henie Onstad Art Centre 1971, a two-disc CD set by Reel Recordings, but this impressive collection adds the first evening’s performance and presents the music in better, more immediate sound.
Soft Machine at this point consisted of Mike Ratledge on keys, Robert Wyatt on drums, Elton Dean on sax and occasional keyboards, and Hugh Hopper on bass. The group was leaning heavily into jazz by the time it recorded Third in 1970, but still using the distorted keyboards and fuzz bass that kept it in the psychedelic/prog-rock camp. While the set lists for the two nights at Henie Onstad were the same, the approaches and the improvisations by the group varied dramatically at times. On both nights, the set opened with lengthy explorations of “Facelift,” from Third.
The version the group played on Saturday night runs for nearly 12 minutes, and begins with Ratledge and Dean playing a series of chords and arpeggios on keys. Hopper’s fuzz bass filters in for an additional layer of tension as the keyboard lines circle around each other. Wyatt only begins to play drums at around the four-minute mark. The studied chaos gives way to the song’s more structured section about seven minutes in.
“Facelift” commenced in a more rhythmically organized manner on Sunday evening, with the quartet playing together from the start. Wyatt provides a solid foundation on drums as Dean and Ratledge carry on a conversation on keys from different sides of the stage. Hopper holds things together with flowing bass lines and announces the main theme on fuzz bass. The second night’s performance feels more focused, but both performances are experimental, vigorous, and exciting.
Saturday night’s take on “Virtually,” also from Third, has a slightly ruminative opening, but soon settles into a groove, while the Sunday performance moves into the main theme more quickly. Both feature unique improvisations and the group deftly moves into unexpected passages that feature changes in dynamics and attack.
“Neo-Caliban Grides” first appeared on Dean’s debut solo album in 1971, but ended up on Soft Machine’s set lists. On Høvikodden 1971, both versions show a fresh approach to the tune’s loose, free-jazz structure. Wyatt provides a more forceful rhythmic outline for the group on the second night, but the song goes through multiple permutations in both performances.
On both evenings, “Neo-Caliban Grides” segued into “Out-Bloody-Rageous,” from Third, played at a slightly quicker tempo on Saturday but filled with brilliant improvisations on both nights. The song’s sections and changes are different in each performance, and that’s true of all the performances here. Høvikodden 1971 is full of surprises as each tune is revised, deconstructed, and reassembled into something new. The quartet’s level of communication was such that the players could respond quickly to a cue from one of them to shift a performance in another direction.
“Fletcher’s Blemish,” “Kings and Queens,” and “Teeth” originally appeared on Fourth, released just before the performances documented in this collection. “All White” and Pigling Bland” would show up on Fifth (1972). All the tracks on Høvikodden 1971 veer wildly and invigoratingly from the versions that appeared on the band’s studio albums, which were already unpredictable.
The sound on Høvikodden 1971 is very good overall. The original tape was made on a Studer A62 two-track recorder with a pair of Neumann microphones set up near the soundboard. Ian Beabout at ShedSounds Studio mixed and mastered the recording—Dean’s saxophone could be pulled up further in the mix on occasion and the bass sometimes drops a bit, but overall, the results are remarkably clear and consistent.
GZ Media in the Czech Republic pressed the LPs in my copy of Høvikodden 1971, and the vinyl was flat and quiet. The four LPs are each packaged in a medium-weight cardboard cover with an antistatic inner sleeve. The liner notes are on glossy paper, and the entire set is packaged in a luxurious, heavy cardboard outer sleeve. The LP set includes a CD-quality download of the music.
Høvikodden 1971 is the fifth Cuneiform release of music by this configuration of Soft Machine, and the label has many other titles documenting performances by several of the group’s lineups in the early ’70s. All of them are worthwhile, but Høvikodden 1971 is an outstanding document of a unique and challenging quartet of musicians. I’ll be pleased if Cuneiform releases more music by this band, but I doubt the label will be able to top this set.
. . . Joseph Taylor
josepht@soundstagenetwork.com
