SOFT MACHINE - HOVIKODDEN 1971

• soft machine: hovikodden 1971
      (2024, 4cd, USA, cuneiform)

Soft Machine’s two concerts at the Henie-Onstad Art Center near Oslo, Norway, in late February 1971 were special in several respects. The circumstances, of course, were unusual...in a museum space, as part of an art exhibition by the Boyle Family, and Mark Boyle’s films were projected during the performances. It was part of the last European tour that featured the ‘classic quartet’ line-up before they went to the USA and split apart. But more significantly, both shows were recorded, and superbly at that, providing a rare glimpse into how, at this stage in the band’s existence, the music could change significantly from one night to the next, even when the setting didn’t.

Featuring 

• Elton Dean: alto sax, saxello, Hohner pianet
• Hugh Hopper: bass
• Mike Ratledge: Hohner pianet, Lowrey Holiday Deluxe organ, Fender Rhodes
• Robert Wyatt: drums, vocals

What an impressive release this is.
"Hovikodden 1971" ticks all of the boxes.

And even Frank Zappa gets a mention in the liner notes:

Among the audience at Henie Onstad was Frode Holm, the future founder of Compendium Records, which in 1976–77 would release several albums involving Elton Dean and/or Hugh Hopper. “In our hippie days, me and my friends were a little bit ‘offcenter’ from the usual Oslo scene—Grateful Dead, etc. We all liked to listen to jazz and pretty much any kind of ‘out there’ music, like Frank Zappa. We were particularly fond of Soft Machine, and when they released Third, we were in complete ecstasy—there was never a get-together when that album wouldn’t get played at least once!

I definitely need to dust off some of my old Soft Machine albums and give them another listen.