Carsten Pieper
Wow, the ever evolving Soft Machine with an impressive new chapter. After one and a half spins it's completely impossible to make out a favorite yet, as there are plenty candidates.
The quartet is true to their roots, revisiting a couple of older pieces, but obviously enough new doors remain to be opened.
Strong compositions, arrangements, soloing and interplay. A very fine album!
rcarlberg/Anode
I still use my dad's old axe when splitting wood for the fireplace. The handle's been replaced four times, and the head twice, but it's still the same axe.
Favorite track: Penny Hitch.
wildwielder
Definitely one of their very finest releases. Some of Etheridge and Travis’ most fluid playing yet, and Marshall’s most powerful drumming (it’s hard to believe by the performance that he’s 81 and retiring). Love their digging into the institution’s more forgotten tunes for re-imagining; also love “Back in Season”, an appropriately more energetic sequel to “Out of Season.” These are no mere pilfering of their own back catalog, but total re-arrangements turning them into whole new works of art.
Favorite track: Back In Season.
Robert Middleton
This new Soft Machine album is quite spectacular! I've been listening to the Softs since Third in 1970. I was thrilled when they returned in 2003 with Abracadabra under the name Soft Works, but this album is at a whole new level. At 1hr. 11 minutes they cover a lot of ground, with many short songs, but it comes off as a magnificent jazz-rock suite with colors ranging from soft and gentle to thundering and grandiose. A masterpiece.
Tom Landon
I agree with Robert Middleton, this is a fine album and definitely my favourite of the 'new series'. Lovely versions of Penny Hitch, Joy of a Toy and Backwards, as well as some fine loosely-written/improvised numbers. A special shoutout for Fred Baker, surely one of the best bassists ever to come out of the UK, a true lover of Canterbury music and also a very nice fellow! Looking forward to more...
Favorite track: Penny Hitch.
CDs to be shipped in the end of June 2023, when the full digital album will be released as well. (USA Release)
JOHN ETHERIDGE - guitars
THEO TRAVIS - tenor and soprano saxophones, flutes, Fender Rhodes
piano, electronics
FREDDY BAKER - fretless bass guitar
JOHN MARSHALL - drums
special guest
ROY BABBINGTON - bass guitar (tunes 2 and 9)
Cover photography and artwork by Lasse Hoile. Portrait photo by Mariia Korneeva Graphic design by Carl Glover @Aleph.
John Etheridge plays Martyn Booth Custom and Fret King Elise J E model guitars. Theo Travis plays Trevor James alto flutes
Fred Baker plays a Matt Rooke FTB signature bass and Newtone strings. John Marshall plays Sonor drums and Paiste cymbals and gongs.
Special thanks to Leonardo Pavkovic who brought us back together and for his support and encouragement Thanks to Nick Utteridge for his invaluable work on the road. Thanks to Chris & Jayne Elliott for looking after the website.
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Five years after the release of their last studio album, legendary
UK musical institution, Soft Machine, return with a brand new
CD/LP, Other Doors. Boasting new material and two numbers drawn
from their extensive historical repertoire, Other Doors finds the
band on their usual fiery form.
Featuring John Etheridge (guitars), Theo Travis, (saxes, flutes,
Fender Rhodes piano, electronics), Fred Thelonious Baker (Fretless
bass), John Marshall (drums), Other Doors also features two guest
appearances from long-serving bassist Roy Babbington, who retired
from the band in 2021.
Other Doors was recorded at Temple Music Studios, a facility owned
by the late Jon Hiseman during July and August 2022. It’s a
location of which the band is particularly fond, explains John
Etheridge. “Working at Jon Hiseman’s studio was special,
especially with Ru Lemer who is a brilliant engineer. He’s
fantastically quick and that’s very good as we record mainly live
in the studio. And then we take it to Andrew Tulloch (our go to man)
who’s brilliant work mixing and mastering has enhanced all of our recent albums , so it is sonically excellent as well as being spontaneous and ‘in the moment It’s come out really well and I think it sounds great.”
That ability to work quickly on takes as an ensemble has resulted
in a fresh-sounding series of top-flight performances whose
typically knotty and sometimes complex themes frequently give way
to explosively discursive improvisations. As Theo Travis observes,
“The interesting thing about recording free improvisations is
you're not playing to a plan or a grid or a blueprint, so you
don’t know what's coming, and you don't know what's coming until
it's gone. At which moment you're thinking about the next thing.”
The album is brimming with that fast-moving creativity including
the title track, whose outline was initially composed by John
Etheridge in the Lake District during 2021’s lockdown. Crooked
Usages’ ’ slow-weaving machinations and the prowling
inquisitiveness pursued during Fell to Earth are similarly imbued
with a dextrous yet melodic bite that defines much of the band’s
approach. Within this framework, John Etheridge’s supple
interrogations across the fretboard’s range coupled with Theo
Travis' tightly focused sax and flute alongside his
impressionistic keyboard washes encompass a musical language that
can be as cerebral as it is emotionally direct.
The Visitor at the Window, The Stars Apart, and the elegiac Back
in Season unfurl into more reflective states of being, variously
contrasted by mediative percussion, flute, solo guitar, or swarms
of electronica and echoing clusters of electric piano. All
coalesce to build into the beguiling atmospherics which forms a
vital layer within the Soft Machine sound world.
It’s been a kind of tradition with the group to include new
arrangements of older Soft Machine numbers from the band’s
illustrious back catalogue. These have included numbers as varied
as Chloe and the Pirates, Kings and Queens, Out-Bloody-Rageous, etc.
On Other Doors they’ve revisited the very first album,
originally released in 1968, to include Kevin Ayers ‘Joy Of A Toy.
Fred Baker, makes his studio debut with Soft Machine. A well-known
figure on the Canterbury Scene not only is he the perfect choice
for the group but he’s also is a long-term fan of the
repertoire.“The way I look at it is that this is all great music
which we’re continuing to preserve and keep alive as we play it
but also we’re adding to it all the time,” he explains. The idea
for revisiting the number was Theo Travis’ he says and has been
part of the band’s live setlist for a while. “I’ve added some
extra harmonies and other things to it, so it’s got my stamp as
well as going back right down to Kevin Ayers's original. It
somehow fitted in with all of the new material as well as the
older tracks we do. It’s amazing the amount of young people coming
along to gigs who are liking the wide range of music we play.”
The album also contains Penny Hitch, a track originally heard on
1973’s Soft Machine Seven. This features the first of two
appearances of Roy Babbington who provides the bass lines
underpinning Karl Jenkins’ composition while Fred plays the
sinuous lead melody on his fretless bass. The pair also worked
together as a duo on Now! Is The Time, a number originally based
on a theme Babbington brought into the sessions, with Fred and Roy
both adding and expanding the scope of the piece.
If the album ushers in a new member in the shape of Fred Baker, it
also acts as a fond farewell to drummer John Marshall, who joined
Soft Machine midway through the recording of 1972’s Fifth. At the
age of 81 Marshall has decided to retire making Other Doors his
final studio album with the group. “I’ve known John since 1975
when I first joined Soft Machine and of course, we’ve worked
through the years together intermittently ever since. His drumming
always meant a lot to me,” says Etheridge. “We worked over three
days in the studio and John played great. It sounds terrific.”
Indeed, Marshall is on whip-cracking form throughout the album
bringing his trademark musicality and decisive presence. With
Other Doors, he brings his distinguished career to a rousing
conclusion.
Intense, celebratory, and consistently impressive. Other Doors is
the sound of a group determined to press forwards with an
integrity and sense of purpose that’s quintessentially and
definitively Soft Machine.
Special thanks to our associated executive producrs:
Adin Feaster, Alberto Compagnone, Angel Martinez, Arthur Graf, Brian Lamb, Carlo Raffaelli, Chris Jamieson, Craig Waxman, Cristiano Oliveira, David Ashcraft, David Doorn, Dustin Wall, Fabio Loli, George Overrill, Graham Adamson, Hiro Baba, Hunter Loveridge, James Dougherty, Jean Paul Beressi, Jean-Henry Berevoescu, Jeffrey Keyerleber, John Alexander Fraser, Julian Christou, Kevin McClure, Kevin Thomas, Luis Valenzuela Méndez, Łukasz Pysz, Mark Gasper, Michael James, Nenad Tufekcic, Nick Utteridge, Richard Geary, Roland Epping, Ross Donovan, Seiji Tamura, Stephen Barker, Steven Mayhugh, Toby Hart Dyke, William Lloyd, William Robertson.
credits
released June 30, 2023
JOHN ETHERIDGE - guitars
THEO TRAVIS - tenor and soprano saxophones, flutes, Fender Rhodes
piano, electronics
FREDDY BAKER - fretless bass guitar
JOHN MARSHALL - drums
special guest
ROY BABBINGTON - bass guitar (tunes 2 and 9)
Recorded by Ru Lemer at Temple Music Studio, Surrey, England, on July 30, 31 and August 1, 13 and 14, 2022.
Mixed and Mastered by Andrew Tulloch at the Blue Studio, London, n November/December 2022.
Cover photography and artwork by Lasse Hoile. Portrait photo by Mariia Korneeva Graphic design by Carl Glover @Aleph.
John Etheridge plays Martyn Booth Custom and Fret King Elise J E model guitars. Theo Travis plays Trevor James alto flutes
Fred Baker plays a Matt Rooke FTB signature bass and Newtone strings. John Marshall plays Sonor drums and Paiste cymbals and gongs.
What's Rattlin' On The Moon? (A Personal Vision Of The Music Of Mike Ratledge), by Italian keyboards legend BEPPE CROVELLA of Arti & Mestieri. Soft Machine
Another stellar release from this long-lived ensemble. Though the King Crimson influence is obvious & that comparison unavoidable, these guys have made many great recordings that can't be categorized as 'mere copies'. The perfect balance of aggressive riffing and serene soundscapes. Stephen Roberts
UK jazz-rock icons pay tribute to British trumpeter Harry Beckett in the second entry in My Only Desire Records’ Brit Jazz 45s series. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 1, 2024
