Robert Wyatt Comicopera CD

First with his legendary band the Soft Machine and then as a solo artist, Robert Wyatt has never been afraid of a hefty conceit in his music. Fittingly, COMIC OPERA--his Domino records debut and first since 2003's CUCKOOLAND--continued Robert Wyatt's impressive string of late period solo records by focusing on nothing less than the innate comedy of the human condition. Wyatt presents an opus divided into three acts--"Lost in Noise," "The Here and the Now," and "Away With the Fairies"--centered around what he called the "unpredictable mischief of real life."

As with all of his '00s output, Wyatt trades in the exploratory psych-prog of his early '70s work in favor of elegant and ornate jazz arrangements. His voice--an unsung treasure of British rock--remains the centering constant here, as Wyatt's orchestrations swing from the mellow and alluring ("Just As You Are" and "You You") to the disquieting ("Fragment" and "Cancion de Julieta," which also find Wyatt abandoning English in favor of Spanish and Italian lyrics). While Wyatt's conceptual ambitions might be hard to grasp in detail, the tracks haunt and never need elaboration, placing COMIC OPERA amongst his best works as a solo artist.

Recording information: At Home, Louth; Movin' Studio, Padua, Italy; Phil Manzanera's Gallery Studio.

Personnel: Robert Wyatt (vocals, guitar, trumpet, pocket trumpet, cornet, piano, keyboards, percussion); Robert Wyatt; Seaming To (vocals, clarinet); Brian Eno (vocals, keyboards, sound effects); Karen Mantler (vocals); Del Bartle, Paul John Weller, Del Bartle, Paul Weller (guitar); Gilad Atzmon (clarinet, saxophone, tenor saxophone); Seaming To Voice (clarinet); Maurizio Camardi, Maurizio Camardi (saxophone); Alfonso Santimone, Alfonso Santimone (piano, keyboards); David Sinclair, Dave Sinclair (piano); Alessandro Fedrigo, Alessandro Fedrigo (bass guitar); Gianni Bertoncini, Gianni Bertoncini (drums); Mônica Vasconcelos (vocals); Phil Manzanera (guitar); Chucho Merchán, Yaron Stavi (bass violin); Annie Whitehead (trombone, baritone horn); Orphy Robinson (vibraphone, steel pan); Jamie Johnson (bass guitar); Paolo Vidaich (percussion).

Audio Mixer: Jamie Johnson.

Spin (p.128) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Structured like an opera in three hazy 'acts,' the CD is like spending a cloudy afternoon on Jupiter....Haunting..."
Uncut (p.118) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[E]ach song works brilliantly in isolation, making this a treasure trove of Wyatt's finest work ever."
Magnet (p.113) - "[T]here's perhaps nothing prettier than the steel drum-driven 'On The Town Square'....COMICOPERA is a masterpiece..."
The Wire (p.64) - "A superb album, in which Wyatt gathers all of his strengths...the personal and the political, the aesthetic and the ethical are brought together as only he can."
The Wire (p.36) - Ranked #1 in The Wire's "Top Ten Records of the Year 2007" -- "Even by Wyatt's standards of honest, self-examining songwriting, COMICOPERA was a proper gut-spiller."
Down Beat (p.76) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Wyatt is an earnest vocalist who maintains the thread of improvisation and playful melody in his performances."
No Depression (p.108) - "[W]ith haunting melodies, intelligent lyrics, arrangements that are both organic and atmospheric...and vocals that are among the most heartbreakingly plaintive this side of Chet Baker..."