Comicopera
Encyclopedia
Comicopera is an album by Robert Wyatt
Robert Wyatt
Robert Wyatt is an English musician, and founding member of the influential Canterbury scene band Soft Machine, with a long and distinguished solo career...

 released on 8 October 2007, available on both CD and double vinyl
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...

 formats (the vinyl's fourth side contains no music and has a poem etched into its surface). It is Wyatt's first release on the Domino Records label. It features many other musicians, including Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...

, Paul Weller, Gilad Atzmon
Gilad Atzmon
Gilad Atzmon is an Israeli-born British jazz saxophonist, novelist, political activist and writer.Atzmon's album Exile was BBC jazz album of the year in 2003. Playing over 100 dates a year, he has been called "surely the hardest-gigging man in British jazz." His albums, of which he has recorded...

 and Phil Manzanera
Phil Manzanera
Phil Manzanera is a musician and record producer. He is the lead guitarist with Roxy Music. In 2006 Manzanera co-produced David Gilmour's album On An Island and played in Gilmour's band for tours in Europe and North America...

, and was recorded in Wyatt's house and Manzanera's recording studio. The song Del Mondo is a cover from Ko de mondo, the debut album of Italian post-punk
Post-punk
Post-punk is a rock music movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental...

 band Consorzio Suonatori Indipendenti
Consorzio Suonatori Indipendenti
Consorzio Suonatori Indipendenti, also C.S.I. is an Italian band evolved from former punk/art band CCCP Fedeli alla linea....

.

The album was voted by Wire magazine as best of the year in 2007.

Track listing

Act One: Lost in Noise
  1. "Stay Tuned" (Anja Garbarek
    Anja Garbarek
    Anja Garbarek is a Norwegian singer-songwriter of mixed Norwegian and Polish descent. She is the daughter of the Norwegian jazz saxophonist Jan Garbarek and grew up around Oslo. She received the Spellemannsprisen in 2001 for her album Smiling & Waving in the open class category. She is married to...

    ) – 3:49
  2. "Just as You Are" (Alfreda Benge
    Alfreda Benge
    Alfreda Benge is a lyricist and illustrator. She has been married to musician Robert Wyatt since 1974. She has contributed lyrics to many of his compositions, and has written lyrics for French musician/producer Bertrand Burgalat, and for Brazilian singer Monica Vasconcelos.Benge studied and worked...

    , Wyatt) – 4:21
  3. "You You" (Alfreda Benge, Wyatt) – 4:22
  4. "A.W.O.L." (Alfreda Benge, Wyatt) – 2:56
  5. "Anachronist" (Wyatt) – 3:28

Act Two: The Here and the Now
  1. "A Beautiful Peace" (Wyatt, Brian Eno
    Brian Eno
    Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...

    ) – 2:27
  2. "Be Serious" (Wyatt) – 2:56
  3. "On the Town Square" (Wyatt) – 5:26
  4. "Mob Rule" (Wyatt) – 2:16
  5. "A Beautiful War" (Wyatt, Brian Eno) – 2:40
  6. "Out of the Blue" (Alfreda Benge, Wyatt) – 3:41

Act Three: Away With the Fairies
  1. "Del Mondo" (Ferretti, Zamboni, Maroccolo, Magnelli, Canali) – 3:29
  2. "Cancion de Julieta" (Federico García Lorca
    Federico García Lorca
    Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads...

    , Wyatt) – 7:32
  3. "Pastafari" (Orphy Robinson
    Orphy Robinson
    Orphy Robinson is an award-winning Vibraphonist. Robinson, a multi-instrumentalist, also plays the saxophone,trumpet, drums, piano, marimba and steel pans . Orphy has written music for television, film, theater, opera and contemporary classical music...

    ) – 4:37
  4. "Fragment" (Alfreda Benge, Wyatt) – 1:38
  5. "Hasta Siempre Comandante" (Carlos Puebla
    Carlos Puebla
    Carlos Manuel Puebla was a Cuban singer, guitarist, and composer. He was a member of the old trova movement who specialized in boleros and nationalistic songs.- Biography :...

    ) – 4:37

Personnel

  • Robert Wyatt
    Robert Wyatt
    Robert Wyatt is an English musician, and founding member of the influential Canterbury scene band Soft Machine, with a long and distinguished solo career...

     – voice, piano, percussion, keyboard, trumpet, cornet, pocket trumpet, old metronome, karenotron (voice of Karen Mantler), Enotron (voice of Brian Eno), monicatron (voice of Monica Vasconcelos)
  • Brian Eno
    Brian Eno
    Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...

     – keyboards, effects
  • Seaming To – voice, clarinet
  • Annie Whitehead
    Annie Whitehead
    Annie Whitehead is an English jazz trombone player.-Career:Annie learned trombone at school; at 14 she was already busy playing with brass bands, local dance groups and the Manchester Youth Jazz Orchestra and began her professional career at sixteen. Among her initial influences were Miles Davis,...

     – trombone, baritone horn
  • Yaron Stavi – bass violin
    Double bass
    The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

  • Monica Vasconcelos – voice
  • Paul Weller – guitar
  • Gilad Atzmon
    Gilad Atzmon
    Gilad Atzmon is an Israeli-born British jazz saxophonist, novelist, political activist and writer.Atzmon's album Exile was BBC jazz album of the year in 2003. Playing over 100 dates a year, he has been called "surely the hardest-gigging man in British jazz." His albums, of which he has recorded...

     – saxophones, tenor saxophone, clarinet
  • Jamie Johnson – bass guitar
  • Dave Sinclair
    Dave Sinclair
    David Sinclair , is a keyboardist who has been part of the progressive rock Canterbury Scene...

     – piano
  • Phil Manzanera
    Phil Manzanera
    Phil Manzanera is a musician and record producer. He is the lead guitarist with Roxy Music. In 2006 Manzanera co-produced David Gilmour's album On An Island and played in Gilmour's band for tours in Europe and North America...

     – guitar
  • Del Bartle – guitar
  • Orphy Robinson
    Orphy Robinson
    Orphy Robinson is an award-winning Vibraphonist. Robinson, a multi-instrumentalist, also plays the saxophone,trumpet, drums, piano, marimba and steel pans . Orphy has written music for television, film, theater, opera and contemporary classical music...

     – steelpan
    Steelpan
    Steelpans is a musical instrument originating from The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago...

    , vibraphone
    Vibraphone
    The vibraphone, sometimes called the vibraharp or simply the vibes, is a musical instrument in the struck idiophone subfamily of the percussion family....

  • Chucho Merchan
    Chucho Merchan
    Chucho Merchan is a session jazz bassist and guitarist. He received a Bachelor of Arts from Cambridge University in 1980....

     – bass violin
    Double bass
    The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

  • Maurizio Camardi – saxophones
  • Alfonso Santimone – piano, keyboards
  • Alessandro Fedrigo – bass guitar
  • Paolo Vidaich – percussion
  • Gianni Bertoncini – drums

External links

  • Robert Wyatt Conducts Comicopera With Eno, Weller Pitchfork Media
    Pitchfork Media
    Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...

  • Robert Wyatt, "Comicopera" Brainwashed
    Brainwashed (website)
    Brainwashed is a not-for-profit online music publication offering news and reviews of eclectic music. Over fifty people contribute to the archives of Brainwashed. Brainwashed hosts websites for many bands, artists and record labels...

  • http://www.dominorecordco.com/site/?page=news&artistID=245 Domino Records info
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