Canterbury

In the second we find those who connect to the scene only marginally, coming as they do from different backgrounds and cultures. Here we move beyond the generations already described; these are musicians who have nothing to do with the Wilde Flowers but who — more or less directly — can be linked to Canterbury: the jazz-rock of Ian Carr's Nucleus, the cabaret music of Lol Coxhill, the romanticism of Camel, the big-band sound of Centipede, and so on.

In the third are those musicians who, for brief periods of their long careers, brushed up against the scene without ever becoming a truly integral part of it. For instance, Robert Fripp and Brian Eno respectively produced and played on Matching Mole's album "Little Red Record"; Nick Mason produced several albums from the scene and recorded a solo album, "Fictitious Sports" (1981), which is typically Canterbury in flavour; the eclectic Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera released two albums in 1975, one solo ("Diamond Head") and one under the name Quiet Sun ("Mainstream"), both featuring collaborations from Robert Wyatt, Bill MacCormick (Matching Mole), Brian Eno and Mongezi Feza. One could even include Mike Oldfield in this strand — an artist whose solo career is anything but Canterbury in nature, but who as a young man grew up and was shaped within those circles, even if he broke away from them quickly and without regret.

In the fourth and final group are all those followers who, from every corner of the world — England included — have tried to pick up the scene's sound, sometimes letting themselves be shaped by the cultures of their own countries, other times simply retreading old ground; for this reason they can be considered the architects of a genuine "Canterbury outside Canterbury".

It's as if, from the great common trunk of rock music, born from the classic blues-folk-country triad, a small but significant offshoot had sprouted, creating an entirely new world, unexplored until then. It's striking, in fact, to notice how different the music of Canterbury sounds compared to what was being played elsewhere in the UK, even nearby, let alone in the United States. It's almost as if a parallel universe had developed in this small cathedral city, one in which the influence of bands like Beatles, Rolling Stones, Kinks, Byrds, Who, Cream — dominant across most of the English-speaking world — was reduced to almost nothing. It should be made clear, though, that Canterbury, at least in its early years, does not reject the blues-folk-country triad: it would be absurd to imagine that the young Wilde Flowers thought they could move beyond it; what they managed to do, if anything, was enrich and update it. Staying within its boundaries, they simply expanded them to embrace new experiences, making them better suited to an emerging shared sensibility, more comfortable for those who were starting to feel constrained in a world increasingly hungry for new contamination. If Canterbury truly did move beyond that triad, it did so with its most mature albums, several of which genuinely offer a vision that reaches far beyond the boundaries of the classic rock world.

Those who played in Canterbury — during the years the scene developed — generally had a musical background quite different from that of the typical rock musician. They listened more to Ornette Coleman or John Coltrane than Muddy Waters or Little Richard, tried to get their heads around Stockhausen's avant-garde or Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, and grew passionate about the emerging heroes of American psychedelia. Another trait, probably fundamental to how things would develop in the years to come, was the idea that a musician cannot be judged by the number of albums sold; this strong attachment to artistic freedom, one that must not be swayed by the rules of the record "market", would find its ultimate expression in the Rock In Opposition manifesto. This outlook helped create a scene rich in innovation and experimentation, but poor in economic terms. Wyatt has stressed this point in various interviews: "Money was a constant problem for me. You know, I really envy writers and painters, who can work and experiment for hours with nothing but a pen, a sheet of paper, a bit of loose change, a cup of tea and a sandwich. The studio is incredibly expensive, and that creates a lot of tension for me".

Nobody thought we were part of any scene. What I do remember very well is that we wanted to get out of Canterbury.

(Robert Wyatt)

But can a single city and a handful of musicians really give rise to a musical scene of this magnitude? It's likely that the Canterbury scene could never have come into being without the unwitting contribution of two extraordinary people: George Ellidge and Honor Wyatt. Robert's father and mother were open-minded liberals with broad cultural interests spanning music, literature, painting and every form of art. It was in this multifaceted, culturally stimulating environment that Robert had the good fortune to grow up. In the very years when the rest of the UK was moving from beat music to the first stirrings of psychedelia, blues rock and progressive, their house quickly became a gathering point for friends and schoolmates, musicians, aspiring poets, who turned those rooms into wonderful places to listen to music, read poetry, or simply drink and make merry. Those long afternoons spent listening to Robert's father's jazz records, or to the new rock sounds from across the Atlantic brought in by the various guests of the Wyatt household, must have been something else. Among the regulars were all the scene's main protagonists: brothers Hugh and Brian Hopper, cousins Richard and David Sinclair, Pye Hastings, Mike Ratledge, Kevin Ayers. Later joining them was the most eccentric of the lot: the Australian Daevid Allen, the group's hippie, the one who — according to Ayers — with his outgoing personality and his explosive brilliance, created the conditions needed to spark what would turn a group of young teenagers into real musicians.

These traits, which seem so clear to us today, were not so obvious forty years ago; reading certain interviews with Wyatt, Ayers or Hopper, it almost seems as though the scene developed without its own protagonists even being aware of it, only becoming clearly visible years later. Here's what Wyatt has to say: "As for Canterbury, I'd say that just as Christianity was invented seventy years after the poor man's death, the 'Canterbury scene' was also invented a long time afterwards, from the outside. As far as I remember, nobody thought we were part of any scene. What I do remember very well is that we wanted to get out of Canterbury". And Ayers: "I've always denied the existence of a Canterbury scene — we were half a dozen people playing music in the cathedral city, but if I had to find something we truly had in common, it was our literary studies, which was what brought us together in the early years". Finally, Hopper: "I think it's a rather artificial label, a journalistic thing. By the time the Wilde Flowers started playing, nobody in Canterbury was performing live. Canterbury was never really a good place to play music. It's not a musical place — there were never really any suitable venues for a musician there".

– Wilde Flowers

The Wilde Flowers – with lineups that were often different and unstable – played on until 1967, offering up what would become the prelude to a new musical school. Their still-immature, incomplete, at times even childlike music is collected on a series of four compilations released only in 1998, ironically titled "Canterburied Sounds Vol 1-4".

The Children of the Wilde Flowers

– Soft Machine

– Caravan

Soft Machine start racking up major success almost immediately; their live shows with Pink Floyd's Barrett-era lineup in '67-'68 are the stuff of legend. They play all over Europe, even in America as support for Jimi Hendrix. Coming back from a gig in Paris, they lose Allen along the way over passport issues, so Wyatt and co. decide to record the first album on their own. The result is astonishing: the solid bass-and-drums foundation, enriched by Ratledge's virtuosity, forges an unprecedented blend of beat, psychedelia, improvisation and free-spirited spontaneity. "Soft Machine" (1968), for all its simplicity, is a work of tremendous impact that hints at enormous potential. Tracks like the furious "So Boot If At All", the hypnotic "Why Are We Sleeping", the romantic "A Certain Kind" or the early vocal experiments of "Hope For Happiness" and "Why Am I So Short?" are true gems of a Canterbury scene still in its embryonic stage.

After touring the world live, Ayers, unable to withstand the stress of life as a professional musician, leaves the band and is replaced by Hugh Hopper. Hopper's presence, with his fuzz bass, changes Soft Machine, who with "Volume Two" (1969) lose Ayers' lighter, jovial and carefree component in favour of a more structured sound, drawing more from jazz and less from beat. Ties to the first album remain with "Hibou, Anemone And Bear" (a clone of "So Boot If At All") and "Pataphysical Intro", while "Esther's Nose Job" marks an initial interest in avant-garde music.

But it's with "Third" (1970) that Soft Machine reach their peak. The three decide to stop writing songs together and go their separate ways, each composing long 20-minute pieces in which to pour their own ideas. The result is the most mature, complex and articulate album of their career, driving a jazz-rock turn inspired by Miles Davis's latest records; for this very reason, the classic lineup is expanded with Elton Dean on alto sax, Lyn Dobson on soprano sax, Nick Evans on trombone, Rab Spall on violin and Jimmy Hastings on flute and bass clarinet. It feels like a century has passed since their beat-pop debut; their command of their instruments and compositional skill reach new heights of complexity, even if it means sacrificing some of the revolutionary, spontaneist Dadaism of their early days. Wyatt pens one of his finest tracks, "Moon in June": a mix of jazz, avant-garde, psychedelia, beat, vocal experimentation, poetry and total music, it stands apart from the rest of the album precisely because of the brilliant personality of its author who, by now freed from any genre boundary, delivers one of his greatest masterpieces.

After "Third" relations among the three grow increasingly strained. Ratledge pushes for a much more rigid jazz-rock and sidelines Wyatt who, after recording the following "Fourth" (1971) almost as a session player, will form Matching Mole, where he'll find greater freedom and more fitting space to pursue his ideas. History will prove Wyatt right, as he goes on to write more memorable pages of music, while Ratledge, despite his unquestioned leading role in Soft Machine's golden years, will abandon the music scene entirely by the end of the seventies.

The long suite "Nine Feet Underground" from the album "In The Land Of Grey And Pink" – capable as it is of holding together all the typical elements of classic progressive rock suites while adding distinctly Canterbury-style textures – can be considered the manifesto of their music. After the third album, "Waterloo Lily" – with Steve Miller (brother of the better-known Phil, guitarist of Matching Mole and Hatfield and the North) in place of David Sinclair – Richard Sinclair leaves Caravan: "I left the band when it turned toward the audience. When the music evolved in a pop-rock direction, I felt the need to do something else, so I formed Hatfield and the North. I'm not good at writing music for the masses". From this further split a new Canterbury generation will be born.

– Kevin Ayers and the Whole World

– Matching Mole

– Robert Wyatt – Hugh Hooper

Ayers can be considered Canterbury's dandy; his almost childlike joy of living, his irony, carefree spirit and thirst for freedom always led him to dodge the success he deserved, making him a nearly unique figure in rock history. His cheerful, sociable nature, shaped during a childhood spent in Malaysia, kept him from ever taking himself too seriously, leading him to prefer a peaceful life amid wine, beaches and music over the stressful, exhausting grind of label-imposed tours. The other side of his personality is a craving for solitude that led him to live – almost like a hermit – in Ibiza rather than in cold English cities. To better understand his character, one need only read an interview where he recalls Soft Machine's American tour supporting Jimi Hendrix: "The first leg of the tour lasted two months, but to me it felt like six; we travelled and performed under an incredible intensity, a real tour de force. I ended up losing track of night and day, because on that trip I threw myself headlong into the lifestyle that's supposedly typical of rock'n'roll, but soon after I grew tired of that pace and, to get a handle on it, I turned into a kind of recluse. I wouldn't even go to the after-show parties".

This deep stress leads Ayers to leave Soft Machine. Initially he releases the solo album "Joy Of A Toy" (1969), then, having formed his new band, the Whole World, he records "Shooting At The Moon" (1970), which combines avant-garde ("Pisser Dans un Violon", "Underwater"), hard rock ("Rheinhardt & Geraldin"), rock'n'roll ("Lunatics Lament"), night-club music ("May I?") and psychedelia (the title track). Ayers is also the discoverer and mentor of Mike Oldfield, who plays – while still a minor – guitar and bass with the Whole World.

He is still with Soft Machine when he releases his first solo album, "The End of an Ear" (1970), marked by a quest for absolute creative freedom. It's a very difficult work, neither jazz nor rock: a collection of extreme sounds, a bold and truly radical experiment in "total music". After leaving Soft Machine, he forms, together with guitarist Phil Miller, bassist Bill McCormick and keyboardist David Sinclair (ex-Caravan), the group that, right from its name, picks up the thread he had previously left hanging.

Matching Mole (a name chosen for its assonance with the French translation of "Soft Machine") released only two albums, both essential. The self-titled "Matching Mole" (1972) and the follow-up "Little Red Record" (1972) tread paths quite different from the extremism of "The End Of An Ear", marking the entry into Canterbury history of major musicians from outside the scene who came close to it for brief spells. "Little Red Record" in particular, produced by Fripp and enriched by Eno's synth contribution, marks Wyatt's turn toward political activism, a message made clear both by the title and by the cover art, which depicts the four members of Matching Mole holding Mao's little red book and a machine gun, ready to fight American imperialism. It's an album that certifies a shift in perspective: the golden age of the Sixties and the ideals of the Summer of Love are by now just a distant memory.

The Matching Mole experience would have continued had the unthinkable not happened. It's June 1, 1973; Robert falls from a third-floor window and is left paraplegic, unable to walk again, let alone play drums. Wyatt shows remarkable inner strength, quickly rediscovering his desire to play music thanks also to the help of his partner Alfie and of friends who support him in every way; he would even say that he tried out some of the songs from "Rock Bottom" on an old piano in the hospital where he remained for nearly a year. Soft Machine and Pink Floyd play a famous benefit concert, donating the proceeds to Robert. Nick Mason in particular stays very close to him and produces his next album. It's July 26, 1974; "Rock Bottom" (1974) is released, today unanimously recognized as a landmark in the history of music. That very same day, Robert marries Alfie.

It would seem like a rebirth; the young Soft Machine drummer no longer exists (Wyatt would call him "the biped drummer") and a new man is born. "Rock Bottom", borrowing the allegory of the sea, speaks of the immense effort needed to climb back up from the depths into which life can throw you; the ascent/rebirth is possible, but only at the cost of enormous sacrifice, and only thanks to the help of those close to you. All of Canterbury pays tribute to its acknowledged leader; the album features contributions from Mike Oldfield, Gary Windo, Mongezi Feza — trumpeter and close friend of Wyatt's, who would die shortly after in mysterious circumstances — Fred Frith, Hugh Hopper and Richard Sinclair.

Wyatt's career continued with various LPs and dozens of collaborations. Among the many, it's impossible not to mention Brian Eno's "Music For Airports" (1978), Michael Mantler's "The Hapless Child" (1975) and Nick Mason's "Fictitious Sports" (1981), the latter two both featuring the involvement of Carla Bley. After releasing "Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard" (1975), Wyatt went through a period of his life in which he became deeply interested in politics. Of those years he said: "Starting in the mid-70s, I felt very confused. My music seemed to me totally inadequate. I found the idea, held by the '60s generation, that the world could be improved simply through protest songs, immensely presumptuous and ridiculous. I began to take a greater interest in serious revolutionary activity, that is, activity aimed at overthrowing power." He then joined the British Communist Party and for at least seven years was more interested in politics than in music. This experience culminated in the album "Nothing Can Stop Us" (1982), a collection of old left-wing political songs reworked by him. Also in 1982, he made a decisive turn toward electronics with the excellent soundtrack to the documentary "The Animals Film" (1982). His career has continued to this day with solo albums and collaborations. His most recent release, the compilation "Different Every Time" (2014), gathers together many of his best songs alongside various collaborations scattered across LPs that aren't always easy to find.

His second album, "Hopper Tunity Box" (1977), is more conventional, but contains some surprising tracks, such as the jazz-rock triptych of "Hopper Tunity Box", "Miniluv" and "Gnat Prong".

– Daevid Allen and Gong – Steve Hillage

– Arzachel

– Khan

– Paragong

– Mother Gong

After years of paying their dues with the Wilde Flowers, we arrive at 1967. During a tour of France with the fledgling Soft Machine, Allen is unable to return to England due to passport issues. Stuck in Paris, he finds the time to form Gong, the strangest group to emerge, albeit indirectly, from Canterbury. Indeed, the link to the scene feels forced; Gong have little in common with Caravan or Soft Machine, and remain a thoroughly unique and original case. Their music reworks a European version of Zappa's freak-rock operettas, goes beyond classic psychedelia, and contains proto-progressive and space-rock elements that had been partly foreshadowed in Allen's two solo albums, "Magick Brother Mystick Sister" (1970) and "Banana Moon" (1970) — the latter featuring Wyatt. This is particularly evident in the surreal track "Stoned-Innocent Frankenstein And His Adventures In The Land Of Flip".

With "Camembert Electrique" (1971) their long journey begins, a dazed trip into the imaginary world of planet Gong, populated by green aliens who travel through space on flying teapots, telepathic pirate radios, invisible temples, protective magnetic fields, banana-shaped observatories. Initially Gong is made up — besides Allen — of singer and poet Gilli Smyth, saxophonist and flautist Didier Malherbe, bassist Christian Tritsch and drummer Pip Pyle, but the lineup is destined to change frequently.

"Camembert Electrique" is still a transitional album; to bring to life the trilogy that contains within it all of Allen's ideas, Gong needed the addition of Steve Hillage (Arzachel, Khan) and Tim Blake on synth. After a 1972 spent touring across Europe, the time comes for the celebrated Gong trilogy, "Radio Gnome Invisible", "Flying Teapot" (1973), "Angels Egg" (1973), "You" (1974). "Flying Teapot" is the perfect synthesis of Allen's visionary character and musical ideas; a great work suspended between space-rock, hippie spirit, surreal irony, freak psychedelia, jazz and electronics, all brought together in one single, sprawling vessel. Allen's influence recedes on the subsequent "Angels Egg" and "You". The latter especially leans heavily into Gong's electronic-space soul, while "Angels Egg" sits in between the two, not just chronologically. In 1975, Allen temporarily left Gong, explaining himself thus: "An invisible electromagnetic field was preventing me from getting close to my friends". Hillage, meanwhile, embarked on a solo career.

In 1972 Hillage formed Khan, a group responsible for just one album, "Space Shanty". Khan boasted an excellent lineup which, besides Hillage, included two musicians from Arthur Brown's Crazy World, Nick Greenwood on bass and Dick Henningham on keyboards (eventually replaced by Dave Stewart of Uriel). Initially Gong drummer Pip Pyle was also part of the group, but he left shortly before recording began and was replaced by Eric Peachey. Hillage steered the sound towards various influences. The ultra-psychedelic textures of Arzachel were abandoned for a decisive turn towards prog, encompassing psychedelia, Canterbury sounds, Gong-style surrealism and spacey atmospheres; all elements that were and would remain the common denominator of Hillage's music. After his stints with Khan and Gong, he embarked on a solo career. He released several albums, including "Fish Rising" (1975), "L" (1976), "Motivation Radio" (1977), "Green" (1978), "Live Herald" (1979) and "Rainbow Dome Musick" (1979). "Fish Rising" and "L", with their more evocative, spacey touches, are two excellent examples of Allen's ideas, while "Motivation Radio" turns out to be more commercial; "Green" (produced by Nick Mason), "Live Herald" and "Rainbow Dome Musick" bring him back to a respectable level.

The split of Gong gave rise to a number of projects worth remembering. Among these are Paragong, a very short-lived group, essentially Gong minus Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth. Left in place were Didier Malherbe on sax and flute, Steve Hillage on guitar and vocals and Tim Blake on vocals, harmonica and synth: they were joined by Pierre Moerlen, a classically trained percussionist, and bassist Mike Howlett. Their material is collected on the near-impossible-to-find "Paragong live '73" (1995), whose recordings were lost, rediscovered years later and released posthumously. Listening back to the live album, a formidable mix of improvisation and Arzachel-style psychedelic delirium, it almost feels as though the spirit of master Allen still hovers over it despite his absence.

A few years later Gilli Smyth founded Mother Gong together with Didier Malherbe, Hawkwind saxophonist Nik Turner, and guitarists Eduardo Niebla and Harry Williamson. With their excellent debut album, "Fairy Tales" (1979), they attempted to tell a series of fairy tales for children through Gong's trademark fairytale atmospheres. The opening track "Wassilissa" draws on a Russian fairy tale written by Alexander Rou in 1939, while the closing "The Pied Piper" is dedicated to the famous piper of Hamelin created by the Brothers Grimm. The attempt - however unlikely it might seem - works, since it strips Gong's sound of its psychedelic component and enriches it with flutes, harps, bagpipes and uilleann pipes (a traditional Irish instrument) that weave a carpet of traditional music, the ideal backdrop for Smyth's dialogues, at times gentle, at times bizarre. The subsequent "Robot Woman" trilogy (1981-1982-1986) draws more heavily on the Gong sound, always balanced between irony and experimentation.

- Egg

- Camel

- Phil Manzanera, Quiet Sun, 801

Their only album, "Mainstream" (August 1975), offers an almost entirely instrumental prog-rock, revealing Latin influences, Manzanera's technical prowess, and the Matching Mole style brought by MacCormick (for instance on the surreally titled track "Mummy Was An Asteroid, Daddy Was A Small Non-Stick Kitchen Utensil", written by MacCormick himself). A few months earlier (May 1975) Manzanera had also released his debut solo album - "Diamond Head" - featuring contributions from Eno ("Miss Shapiro"), Wyatt (Frontera) and John Wetton (King Crimson, Asia). "Diamond Head", while similar to "Mainstream", has a more melodic prog soul and a more pronounced leaning towards Latin sounds. Manzanera's partnership with Canterbury would continue in 1976 with 801, a sort of prog supergroup featuring Brian Eno on synth, Bill MacCormick on bass, Francis Monkman (Curved Air) on piano, and Simon Phillips (Toto, Judas Priest, Mike Oldfield, Jack Bruce Band) on drums. Despite its very brief existence, the group would record one of the finest live albums of the scene ("801 Live"), featuring various tracks drawn from Manzanera's albums alongside a cover of the Beatles ("Tomorrow Never Knows", from the album "Revolver").

- Nucleus

- Keith Tippett and Centipede

- Lol Coxhill and Delivery 

The whole Canterbury scene was influenced by jazz or, as Wyatt would put it, by black music. Some British groups, originating outside Canterbury but with more or less close ties to the scene, played in a way so close to jazz that they can be defined as jazz-rock. Indeed, more than Canterbury, their albums seem to draw on the Miles Davis of "Bitches Brew" (1969). Among these are certainly Nucleus, the quintessential British jazz-rock group. Dominated by the figure of trumpeter Ian Carr, with Karl Jenkins (keyboards, oboe), Brian Smith (sax, flute), Chris Spedding (guitar), Jeff Clyne (bass) and John Marshall (drums), they can only be marginally placed within the scene, since Ian Carr, born in 1933 and Scottish, was around fifteen years older than the members of Wilde Flowers.

Their albums range from the debut "Elastic Rock" (1970) to the orchestral "Solar Plexus" (1971), passing through Belladonna (1972) - released as a Carr solo album - up to the rigid jazz-rock of "Roots" (1973). The sound they produced, at times overly academic, has nothing of the spontaneity of Wilde Flowers or early Soft Machine. That's an entirely different story.

Coxhill continued in 1970 by collaborating with Kevin Ayers' Whole World and playing on "Shooting At The Moon" (1970). That same year he released his first solo album, "Ear Of The Beholder", where he finally managed to express himself without external constraints: no longer the blues of Delivery or the dazed poetry of Kevin Ayers, but a complex album, full of influences. From jazz to cabaret, from children's nursery rhymes to night-club atmospheres, from long sax solos to nonsense dialogues. Moving beyond both rock and jazz, Coxhill achieved his true goals for the first time. In the years that followed, he collaborated with nearly every Canterbury group, without ever becoming a full member of any of them. In the mid-1970s he ran a commune where musicians, drifters, vagrants, anarchists and dreamers would gather. He would dedicate the experimental album "Welfare State" (1975) to them.

The essence of the Canterbury sound

– Hatfield and The North

– Gilgamesh

– National Health

– Soft Head and Soft Heap

Their debut – “Hatfield and the North” (1974) – shows remarkable compositional and technical skill, a Caravan-like refinement with long instrumental digressions worthy of the best Matching Mole. Wyatt contributes, singing on the impalpable “Calyx”, sketching vocal lines of extraordinary beauty. The following “The Rotter's Club” (1975) also follows the path laid out by the debut. Between the two albums, Hatfield and the North took part in the recording of “Rock Bottom” (1975).

– Henry Cow

– Art Bears

– Cassiber

– Fred Frith

Placing the complex Rock In Opposition movement within the Canterbury scene might not be something everyone agrees with. It's also true, however, that multi-instrumentalist Fred Frith – founding father of Henry Cow alongside musician Tim Hodgkinson – often played with Wyatt; bassist John Greaves worked with National Health, and saxophonist Geoff Leigh with Hatfield and the North. But there are many more crossovers between the two movements that could be mentioned. It can therefore be argued that shared substrates, environments, goals and aspirations, not entirely dissimilar, did exist. As is often the case, there are two ways of looking at things: the first – extremely restrictive – makes it very easy to stress the differences rather than the similarities. The second – broader – allows us to grasp how, starting from a similar base (Canterbury, jazz influences, aversion to the very idea that a musician should be judged by the number of copies sold), things arrived, over the years, from the Wyatt of “Rock Bottom” to Henry Cow, from the beat of the early Soft Machine to Wyatt's electronic album (“The Animals Film”), from the irony of Gong to that of the Swedish Samla Mammas Manna. Totally different worlds, yet gravitating around shared ideals.

Rock In Opposition sought to forcefully convey political messages of protest, not so much through lyrics as through a harsh, hostile attitude toward record labels, deemed exclusively interested in profit and accused of caring neither about the quality of the music on offer nor about the artistic freedom of musicians. The Rock In Opposition bands regarded this as an unacceptable limitation of their freedom and an improper interference of “capital” in their creative-artistic process. They therefore drew up a genuine manifesto, written by Chris Cutler, with various programmatic points amounting to a scathing attack on “commercial” music and the labels that fund it.

The Rock in Opposition movement was born in 1978 precisely for this reason, and can be regarded as a moving hymn to individual freedom that challenges the very idea of judging an artist by the number of records sold. Looking back at it today, it should be seen as a noble and sincere attempt to overturn the very foundations of the record industry. The goal wasn't simply to create something different; the manifesto hints at an almost revolutionary ambition, aimed not at reforming the existing system but at turning it completely upside down, starting from the minds of both musicians and listeners.

The movement's leading figures are Henry Cow, joined by the Italian Stormy Six, the Belgian Univers Zero and Aksak Maboul, the French Etron Fou Leloublan and Art Zoyd, and the Swedish Samla Mammas Manna.

By the time the manifesto was published (1978), Henry Cow had already been around for ten years. It's 1968 when Fred Frith (multi-instrumentalist), Geoff Leigh (sax, flute) and Tim Hodgkinson (multi-instrumentalist) decide to form a band, later joined by Chris Cutler (drums) and Lindsay Cooper (oboe, bassoon). Their albums are utterly original and, while influenced by jazz, have little to do with the jazz-rock of Nucleus, being more experimental and drawing on a wider range of outside influences; they range from Zappa-esque collages to the experimentalism of Faust, from jazz to highbrow avant-garde, from Schoenberg to Captain Beefheart, from the noise-making of AMM to cabaret-style choruses. As Frith himself puts it, the goal was to “widen the boundaries of our means of expression”, rather than confining themselves within a single genre and locking themselves into a sterile cliché.

Five albums remain of their output: “Leg End” (1973), “Unrest” (1974), two made in collaboration with Slapp Happy – “Desperate Straights” (1975), “In Praise of Learning” (1975) – and “Western Culture” (1978). Among the many guests, the great trumpeter Mongezi Feza also takes part in their fourth album.

After this experience, Slapp Happy's German singer Dagmar Krause, together with Fred Frith and Chris Cutler, form what can be considered the worthy successors to Henry Cow: Art Bears. Art Bears carry on the noble mission of Rock in Opposition, sharing the same horizons and the same goals. Their three albums, “Hopes and Fears” (1978), “Winter Songs” (1979) and “The World as it is Today” (1981), continue down the path taken by Frith, who wants to go well beyond rock music and keeps pursuing a total music.

After the experience with Henry Cow and Art Bears, Chris Cutler founds Cassiber, who – particularly with their debut album “Man Or Monkey” (1983) – keep the ideas of Rock in Opposition alive, updating them for the new decade. Fred Frith also releases a fine album in the Eighties, “Speechless” (1981). A bizarre, complex, at times deranged work, it pushes the anti-commercial stance of Henry Cow even further to the extreme. The sounds recall Don Vliet's “Trout Mask Replica” or the most avant-garde side of Frank Zappa. “Speechless” updates Rock in Opposition to the ironic and surreal new wave of The Residents, so much so that the album is produced by their own label, the historic Ralph.

– Nick Mason

– Lindsay Cooper and the News From Babel

– Camberwell Now

– Random Hold

The Canterbury scene could ideally be considered concluded with National Health's second album; that said, even in the Eighties there were various musicians who, while not charting new territory, can be regarded as students and continuators of that musical school.

Nick Mason, the drummer of Pink Floyd, plays no marginal role within the Canterbury story. A friend to nearly all the figures we've discussed, he was one of the musicians who did the most to help Wyatt after his paralysis. He organized the famous 1973 concert with Pink Floyd and Soft Machine to raise funds for Wyatt, who was in dire straits at the time. He produced one of the greatest Canterbury albums, “Rock Bottom” (1974), but also Gong's “Shamal” (1976) and Steve Hillage's “Green” (1978), played with Wyatt on the cover of The Monkees' “I'm A Believer” and took part in various concerts. Among these was the historic live show of September 8, 1974 at London's Theatre Royal Drury Lane, where the promotional poster showed him, Mike Oldfield, Mongezi Feza, Gary Windo and Fred Frith in a wheelchair in solidarity with Wyatt, who a few days earlier, during the recording of Top of the Pops, had been subjected to the humiliating request not to sit in his wheelchair but in a regular chair, so as not to make the broadcast too depressing (a video of that broadcast can be found on YouTube).

In the early Eighties, during a period when Pink Floyd had no commitments, Nick Mason decided to release his first solo album, "Fictitious Sports" (1981). Aware of his own technical and compositional limits, he brought in some truly great artists to collaborate. The album was written entirely by Carla Bley, an extraordinary jazz musician and the author of the monumental "Escalator Over The Hill" (1971). Also featured are Wyatt (vocals) and Gary Windo (tenor sax). The choice of musicians makes the album very different from classic Pink Floyd, with the exception of "Hot River", where Gilmour's guitar seems to come back to life. If anything, it leans closer to the more jazz-influenced branch of the Canterbury scene, though tracks like "Boo To You Too" (a fun Boogie romp), the heart-wrenching "Do Ya", the Zappa-esque "Wervin" and the icy "I'm a Mineralist" give "Fictitious Sports" a considerable identity of its own.

Bassoonist and oboist Lindsay Cooper of Henry Cow began a solid solo career in the Eighties, and in 1984 formed, together with Chris Cutler, Zeena Parkins and Dagmar Krause (Slapp Happy), what can be considered the last Canterbury group, News From Babel. Cooper specialized in particular in soundtrack work, managing to craft a highly personal and recognizable sound, at times dark and claustrophobic, at times simple and minimal. For her debut album, “Rags” (1981), she enlisted the help of Fred Frith and Chris Cutler, while together with Lol Coxhill she recorded her second work, the soundtrack for the film “Gold Diggers” (1983). Cooper proves to be an excellent heir to Henry Cow's mission, as she does again on her subsequent albums “Music For The Small Screen” (1984) and “Music For Other Occasions” (1986). With News From Babel she released two albums, “Work Resumed On The Tower” (1984) and “Letters Home” (1986). The first consists of two long suite-like pieces, one per side, each split into several sub-sections inspired by George Steiner's book “After Babel”: a long journey through incommunicability and alienation. The following “Letters Home”, embellished by the voice of a Wyatt in excellent form, moves closer to the classic song format. Even so, it remains an elegant, refined album that confirms Cooper's role in the very front rank.

After his time with Quiet Sun, drummer Charles Hayward – together with guitarist-clarinetist Charles Bullen and tape-manipulator/bassist/keyboardist Gareth Williams – formed This Heat, a group that attempted the unheard-of experiment of reconciling movements in total contrast with one another: the harshness of punk with the complexity of progressive rock, the experimentation of kraut-rock and Canterbury with small doses of industrial music. After This Heat disbanded (1982), Charles Hayward founded Camberwell Now, giving greater weight to the jazz sound of his drumming and, above all, emphasizing the musicians' virtuosity and technique. To do so, he replaced Bullen and Williams with Trefor Gewronsky on bass and Stephen Rickard on tape manipulation. Leaving aside two EPs, they released only one album – “The Ghost Trade” (1985) – which showcases a rhythm section of great impact and dynamism closely reminiscent of Matching Mole.

Random Hold are one of the many groups that featured the great bassist Bill MacCormick. The line-up also included David Ferguson (keyboards), David Rhodes (guitar and vocals), Simon Ainley (guitar and vocals) and David Leach (drums). Their three albums, “Etceteraville” (1979), “The View From Here” (1980) – which was originally meant to be produced by Peter Gabriel, later replaced by Peter Hammill – and “Burn The Buildings” (1982), show a sound that has by now moved beyond – without disowning – Canterbury, heading decisively toward new wave and post-punk.

The students

– Mike Oldfield – David Bedford

Some musicians only brushed up against the Canterbury scene in a marginal way, and only in the earliest years of their careers: for this reason they might be called students. The most striking case is certainly that of Mike Oldfield, a student whose musical career achieved a level of success and fame that certainly surpassed that of his teachers. A child prodigy, he showed extraordinary musical gifts from a very young age: he spent formative years alongside Kevin Ayers, was a member of the Whole World, contributed to “Shooting At The Moon” (1970) and to “Whatevershebringswesing” (1972), played guitar on “Rock Bottom” (1974), and took part in the historic live show of September 8, 1974 with Wyatt at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane.

Success arrives unexpectedly with the hugely famous “Tubular Bells” (1973), which tops the charts and turns the painfully shy Mike into an international star. The story of “Tubular Bells” has an almost legendary quality: here's a young man who spends years recording tracks in home studios, overdubbing them with amateur equipment, playing some twenty different instruments, and carrying around a cassette tape re-recorded hundreds of times, by now half worn out. In the end it's the fledgling Virgin label that believes in him and releases the album. The choice of “Tubular Bells” as the soundtrack for the film “The Exorcist” opens the doors of success to Mike; these sudden changes catch him completely unprepared. The album builds an ideal bridge between Canterbury and folk music, between progressive rock suites and new age music. Oldfield pulls off a far from simple feat, reconciling great complexity with easy listening across two long suites, making quality and success coexist.

In the years that follow there's a gradual withdrawal from the scene, not just musically but, I'd argue, ideologically too; the subsequent “Hergest Ridge” (1974) and “Ommadawn” (1975) try to repeat the “Tubular Bells” formula (long suites, one per side). In 1978 Oldfield even attempts to “double” the formula that had brought him worldwide fame; hence the four suites of the double album “Incantations”, a record that – given the punk explosion that was reshaping both the goals and the very aesthetic of rock musicians – must have struck contemporaries as downright reactionary.

In the Eighties, hoping to find a new audience and new visibility, Oldfield decides to explore paths never trodden before. The shift, with albums like “Platinum” (1979) and “Crises” (1983), leans decisively towards melodic three-to-four-minute pop songs, sometimes even dance tracks; still, Mike almost always manages to combine quality with commercial appeal. There are attempts to return to the suite format – “Amarok” (1990) – but Mike's career often seems excessively tied to his old “bells”, from which he really can't seem to break free. Proof of this lies in the long arc that starts with “Tubular Bells II” (1992), continues with “Tubular Bells III” (1998), “The Millennium Bell” (1999), up to the inexplicable release of the clone “Tubular Bells 2003” (2003); the arc hits rock bottom in 2013 with  "Tubular Beats“.

Composer David Bedford collaborated with various figures on the scene, but in this case the link to Canterbury is more historical than musical, meant to highlight shared surroundings and background. He's a member of Whole World, where he meets Oldfield, whom he'll go on to help with the recording of “Tubular Bells”, “Hergest Ridge” and “Incantations”; he later collaborates with Lol Coxhill on “Ear Of Beholder”.

Bedford also has a solo career of real substance as a pure avant-garde musician; worth mentioning is “Nurses Songs With Elephants” (1972), where he experiments with long pieces for eighty female voices, others for ten acoustic guitars, or even for twenty-seven pipe twirlers (plastic tubes swung through the air). It's about as far from rock as you can imagine; the album sells barely twenty copies, and when John Peel (the great English producer) hears it, he assumes it must have been accidentally recorded backwards.

Canterbury beyond Canterbury

– Italy – Picchio dal Pozzo – Perigeo

– Belgium – Cos – Pazop – Recreation – Lagger Blues Machine – Aksak Maboul

– Netherlands – Supersister – Pantheon – Bonfire

– Germany – Zyma – Brainstorm – Volker Kriegel

– France – Moving Gelatine Plates – Ame Son – Clearlight – Pataphonie – Triangle 

– Denmark – Coronarias Dans

– Spain – Orquestra Mirasol – Jordi Sabatés – Musica Urbana

– Usa – Happy The Man – The Muffins

The Canterbury scene had an enormous influence throughout Europe, and many musicians sought to share in its experiences and sounds. Some of them drew very close to the most typically Canterbury-style bands, in a sense concealing their geographical origins; others instead kept a more personal approach, also shaped by the musical culture of their home country.

Italy

In Italy there are several musicians who, within the broader panorama of Italian prog, produced sounds closer to Wyatt and his fellow travelers. Among them, the Genoa-based Picchio dal Pozzo produced at least one album that stands out from the rest for its inspiration and originality. But the music of Picchio dal Pozzo doesn't stop at Canterbury: the influence of minimalist composer Terry Riley ("A Rainbow Curved Air" above all) is evident, while their second work — "Abbiamo tutti i suoi problemi" — shows the influence of Frank Zappa.

Formed by Aldo De Scalzi (keyboards, percussion, vocals), Paolo Griguolo (guitar), Giorgio Karaghiosoff (sax, flute, percussion) and Andrea Beccari (bass), they released their debut album in 1976, the self-titled "Picchio dal Pozzo", a true landmark of Italian rock that combines the vocalizations of Robert Wyatt, the minimalism of Riley, and Canterbury sounds halfway between Hatfield and The North, Matching Mole and Wyatt's solo work. The album, dedicated to Wyatt's fabled Italian alter ego, Roberto Viatti, is a point of pride for the whole Italian rock scene.

Perigeo are the best-known Italian jazz-rock band, belonging to the same branch of the scene as Ian Carr's Nucleus. Formed by Giovanni Tommaso (double bass, electric bass), Tony Sidney (guitar), Franco D'Andrea (keyboards), Bruno Biriaco (drums) and Claudio Fasoli (sax), their ultimate goal is to eliminate as much as possible the barriers between jazz and rock, trying to create a universal language. Journalist Maurizio Baiata explains Perigeo's ambitions well in the liner notes for "Abbiamo tutti un blues da piangere": "Music is no longer stuck in foolish self-contemplation, it is progression and exploration, dream and nightmare, a reality in constant flux. False historicist theories lead one to believe that there's no correlation between the two matrices (jazz and rock), that their union is utopian: and Perigeo comes to dissolve them through the facts of its now-universal language".

Their first four albums, "Azimut" (1972), "Abbiamo tutti un blues da piangere" (1973), "Genealogia" (1974) and "La valle dei templi" (1975), show a path that remains consistently true to their principles, creating, to quote Baiata again, an "osmosis between jazz and rock achieved through the breakdown of rhythms and minds, the efforts of individuals within a perfectly choral discourse".

Cos are the Belgian band most influenced by Canterbury. Founded by guitarist and flautist Daniel Schell, a musician who over his career was also a minimalist avant-garde and chamber music composer, as well as one of the pioneers in the use of the Chapman Stick. They debuted in 1974 with "Postaeolian Train Robbery", which already shows a Canterbury-style progressive sound featuring the voice of singer and oboist Pascale Son (Schell's wife), the jazzy piano of Charles Loos (later replaced by Marc Hollander), and sonorities halfway between King Crimson, Jethro Tull, Soft Machine and Magma. The standout track is the title track itself, while the lengthy "Achille" is the album's most complex and ambitious attempt. The following "Viva Boma" (1976) also holds up well: above all, it reveals more hypnotic sides, seeking to reconcile the minimalist repetitions that would become Schell's obsession.

Pazop released just one album, "Psychillis Of A Lunatic Genius" (1972): a solid work that delves into the melodic prog sounds typical of Caravan, enriched by the ever-present flute of Dirk Bogaert, reminiscent of Jethro Tull; there's also no shortage of highly technical, dynamic instrumental passages in the vein of Colosseum.

Less derivative and more original are Recreation; their two albums — "Don't Open" (1970) and "Music or Not Music" (1971) — reveal an unusual musical culture, ranging from classical music to "freak" moments, from the technical Canterbury of Egg to the humor of Ayers. The second album in particular, essentially one long suite, is a true gem of Belgian rock that, while drawing on Anglophone rock, breaks away from it in search of a personal voice.

Another Belgian prog band with Canterbury influences are Lagger Blues Machine; unlike Cos, Recreation or Pazop, they're marked by a more aggressive guitar sound with distinct hard-rock overtones in several passages. Their entire output from 1970-1972 is collected on "The Complete Works" (1994).

The duo Aksak Maboul, made up of Marc Hollander and Vincent Kenis, show across their two albums "Onze Danses Pour Combattre la Migraine" (1977) and "Un Peu de l'me des Bandits" (1980) — the latter produced by Fred Frith of Henry Cow — an irony not unlike that of Sweden's Samla Mammas Manna, enriched, especially on the first album, by a decadent music-hall atmosphere. They also show an interest in Italy; for example, the track "Milano per caso" perfectly captures the foggy atmosphere of Milan's nights in the Seventies. The second album, perhaps due to Fred Frith's production, leans further into experimentation, ranging from psychedelic compositions like "Ce Qu'on Peut Voir Avec Un Bon Microscope", to the dark new wave à la Tuxedomoon of "Azinou Crapules", to the freak-out ravings of "A Modern Lesson".

Holland

In the same year as the Soft Machine's debut (1968), in Holland, Supersister came together, a group of four young musicians made up of keyboardist and singer Robert-Jan Stips, flautist Sacha Van Geest, drummer Marco Vrolijk and bassist Ron Van Eck. Known mainly at home, Supersister were a progressive band that fused hyper-technical, Emerson, Lake and Palmer-style prog (minus the guitarist), Soft Machine-style experimentation, and the bizarre irony of Gong. Indeed, their key musician — keyboardist Robert-Jan Stips — can be considered more of a disciple of Mike Ratledge from the first two Soft Machine albums than of Emerson.

They debuted in 1970 with "Present From Nancy", where constant tempo changes, as well as long flute and keyboard solos, show remarkable technical skill. Especially on the title track and on "Memories Are New", split into three parts, they create an ongoing tug-of-war between melody and virtuosity. In 1971 came "To the Highest Bidder", which contains their "manifesto" tracks: the ten-minute "A Girl Named You" and the fifteen-minute tightrope-walking "Energy (Out Of Future)". The albums that followed, the ambitious "Pudding En Gisteren" (1972), "Superstarshine" (1972) — a collection of unreleased tracks left off previous albums — "Iskander" (1973), and the fun, hallucinated "Spiral Staircase" (1974), continue down the path laid out by their earlier work with excellent results, enriching it year after year with new ideas and projects.

Pantheon, with their sole album "Orion" (1972), represent a simplified version — perhaps due to the musicians' very young age — of Valentyne Suite-era Colosseum and their fellow countrymen Focus. The Canterbury influences are there, and can be found in Caravan's dreamy atmospheres, Egg's technical flourishes, and brief jazz-rock moments.

Another Dutch band that broke up after releasing just one album is Bonfire. The playful "Bonfire Goes Bananas" (1975) — entirely instrumental — shows a cheerfulness worthy of Sweden's Samla Mammas Manna, jazz forays, and dizzying tempo changes à la Gentle Giant; the frenetic rhythms and back-and-forth chases between keyboard and guitar can't help but recall the second generation of Canterbury bands.

Germany

Jazz-rock didn't leave Germany's kraut-rock scene indifferent either, the reference movement for everyone experimenting with the most extreme sounds of the era. Germany's Zyma, formed in 1972 by jazz pianist Günter Hornung, bassist Bodo Brandl, guitarist Tim Pfau, drummer Karl-Heinz Weiler and singer Meinrad Hirt, released only two albums, "Thoughts" (1978) and "Brave New World" (1979).

More than half of them had backgrounds in music teaching, and indeed what immediately jumps out is the sheer technical skill and clarity of sound. Their jazz-rock-prog owes little to their compatriot heroes of kraut-rock, looking instead much more toward the prog of Curved Air and the second generation of Canterbury bands, without skimping on sudden fusion digressions.

Brainstorm released three albums, “Smile A While” (1972), “Second Smile” (1973), “Last Smile” (1974), plus a handful of posthumous recordings. Their jazz-rock sets itself apart from Canterbury through the coexistence of Hendrix-like and Crimson-esque moments — an apparently unlikely mix, but always a stimulating one.

Volker Kriegel is regarded as one of the most virtuosic German jazz guitarists. A complete artist in every sense, equally at home in music, screenwriting, painting, comic-strip drawing, documentary directing, and German translation (he translated Ian Carr's biography of Miles Davis), as well as writing acclaimed books on the history of rock and jazz. A multifaceted figure who, in the early Seventies, produced albums — most notably “Inside: Missing Link” (1972) — bearing clear Canterbury influences. In 1971 he also played alongside Wyatt and Sugarcane Harris (Mothers of Invention, Frank Zappa) at the Berlin Jazz Festival.

France

In France there are several experiences that can be likened to Canterbury. Among these, Moving Gelatine Plates were certainly the closest to the first generation, particularly to Soft Machine and Gong. Their two albums, “Moving Gelatine Plates” (1971) and “The World of Genius Hans” (1972), capture some of the spacey atmospheres of Gong along with an extremely lively and liberating freak spirit.

In 1967-68 Daevid Allen found himself in France due to passport troubles. There he played in Bananamoon alongside drummer Marc Blanc and bassist Patrick Fontaine. Once that experience ended, Blanc and Fontaine formed a band heavily shaped by their acquaintance with Allen, Ame Son, whose album “Catalyse” (1970) plays up the psychedelic traits typical of early Gong and Steve Hillage.

Not quite Canterbury in spirit, but comparable to Mike Oldfield, are Clearlight, the project of musician Cyril Verdeaux; likely spurred by the unexpected success of “Tubular Bells”, they attempted — backed by Virgin in its endless hunt for a “new Mike” — to follow the double-symphony path already trodden by Oldfield. Their debut album, fittingly titled “Clearlight Symphony” (1974), features contributions from Steve Hillage, Tim Blake and Didier Malherbe of Gong. The two symphonies differ from Oldfield's albums in that they lean more heavily into the spacey, cosmic sounds characteristic of Hillage.

To close out the France chapter, Pataphonie and Triangle are well worth a listen. The former draw on the sounds of Soft Machine's “Third” and the dark tones of Hugh Hopper's “1984”. Their two albums, “Pataphonie” (1975) and “Le Matin Blanc” (1978), hard to find these days, are a fine example of thoroughly unconventional French jazz rock. In particular, the two extended tracks on the first album deconstruct the very concepts of rock and jazz to such a degree that they can be considered two successful avant-garde experiments. Triangle, on the other hand, across their three albums — “Triangle” (1970), “Triangle II” (1972), “Homonymie” (1973) — lean closer to the more melodic side of Canterbury (Caravan) and to certain classic progressive bands (in this case, certainly Jethro Tull).

Denmark

The Scandinavian countries produced few Canterbury-style bands, but one of them, Denmark's Coronarias Dans, reached truly remarkable heights of imagination, virtuosity and improvisational skill. Especially on their second album, “Visitors” (1975), one is genuinely struck by their ability to “assault” the listener with an enormous quantity of sounds, notes and endless improvisation, making them something of a unique case on the European scene.

Spain

Spain produced jazz-rock bands influenced both by Canterbury and by the distinctive sounds of their homeland. Among these, Orquestra Mirasol stand out: across their three albums — “Salsa Catalana” (1974), “D'oca oca i et tocca striscia” (1975) and “Mirasol Colori” – “La Boqueria” (1977) — they skillfully blend jazz-rock with Latin sounds.

Not dissimilar, but with a more experimental edge, are the works of jazz keyboardist Jordi Sabatés; first under the name OM with the self-titled “OM” (1971), then as Jarka with “Ortodoxia” (1971) and “Morgue O Berenice” (1972), and finally as a solo artist with “Jordi Sabatés i Toti Soler” (1972) and “Ocells del Mes Enlla” (1975).

More distinctly influenced by the second generation of Canterbury, finally, are Musica Urbana. Two albums survive from them — “Musica Urbana” (1976) and “Iberia” (1978) — which pare the Latin influence right down in favor of a more traditional jazz-rock.

USA

Progressive rock is a distinctly European phenomenon; its presence in the United States – for cultural reasons, and because of a more spontaneous, less cerebral approach to music – has always been marginal, sporadic, and unable to move beyond a still-unfinished proto-progressive stage. This is especially true of the early Seventies, the golden age of European prog. In the years when Europe was giving birth to "Close To The Edge", "Tarkus", "Aqualung", "Lizard", "Nursery Crime", "Octopus", "Valentyne Suite", in the United States – despite comparable technical ability – nothing emerged that could be called more than a tentative, timid proto-progressive attempt (Felt, Fred, Polyphony). This is even truer when we look at the influence of Canterbury, which was virtually absent overseas in the first half of the Seventies. Things changed somewhat in the years that followed; but to find an American band showing clear Canterbury-style influences, we have to wait until 1977 and the debut of Happy The Man, a small gem of dynamism, energy, and frantic tempo and technique changes. The follow-up, "Crafty Hands" (1978), likewise showcased the skills of its musicians – Frank Wyatt and Kit Watkins on keyboards, Mike Beck on drums, Rick Kennell on bass, and Stanley Whitaker on guitar and vocals – who split up following its commercial failure, only to reunite in the Eighties. During these transitional years, Kit Watkins also spent time as a member of Camel.

The Muffins, virtually unknown at home during the Seventies, enjoyed a belated but well-deserved rediscovery that has elevated them almost to the status of founding fathers of American prog. Formed by Dave Newhouse (keyboards), Tom Scott (winds), Billy Swann (bass), Stuart Abramowitz (percussion) and Mike Zentner (guitar), they managed to fuse European culture – prog, Canterbury, Rock In Opposition – with American culture – Frank Zappa and the minimalist avant-garde schools of Terry Riley and Steve Reich. In essence, theirs is a grand journey into total music, unfolding across the titanic experiments of "Manna/Mirage" (1978), "185" (1982) – produced by Fred Frith – and the posthumous "Chronometers" (1993), which collects recordings from their early years, 1975/76.