02 marzo 2026

Per augurare buona sorte al nuovo album a nome dei Soft Machine, il tredicesimo di studio, si è fatto appello al fortunato appeal appunto del numero tredici: tredici il nome dell'album (Thirteen), tredici i titoli in scaletta, tredici minuti la durata del brano più esteso (The Longest Night) e il giorno tredici marzo scelto per data ufficiale della sua pubblicazione. E' di buon auspicio il commento di Robert Wyatt a proposito di Asaf Sirkis, nuovo in formazione (“I’ve known Asaf’s gifts for years, certainly enough to say that as far as I can see there’s nothing he can’t do when he puts his mind to it... his kit skills just keep expanding but what really gets to me are his ethereal, haunting compositions...”) e lo è ancor di più la presenza di Daevid Allen nel cuore dell'ultimo brano (Daevid’s Special Cuppa): il tredicesimo.

"Whilst the line-up of Soft Machine may have changed many times since the heady days of the late 1960's, the band's spirit of musical adventure, and the ease with which it freely avoids being pigeonholed has stayed a constant - as it moves from powerful progressive jazz rock to atmospheric psychedelia to free improvised jazz to ambient loop music. The album is incredibly broad in its breadth and scope. The post-2004 band has never sounded more adventurous." (Sid Smith)

https://softmachine.org
https://softmachine.org/touring/on-tour

01 marzo 2026

Quale aggiornamento sui prossimi impegni della Legacy Band, costituita un paio d'anni fa da allievi musicisti del Royal Birmingham Conservatoire con l'impegno di approfondire lo studio e l'esecuzione delle musiche del compianto Phil Miller (1949-2017) sotto la guida di Fred Thelonius Baker, Herm Mew fa sapere che un loro concerto aprirà quello dei Soft Machine il prossimo 10 aprile proprio lì a Birmingham, in una sala dell'istituto. L'annuncio è al Phil Miller-The Legacy: "Fred and I initiated another of our ideas: a student band to play the music of Phil Miller. The Phil Miller Legacy Band was formed and had its debut performance in 2024 in the East Side Jazz Club. We were so excited with their performance that last year we had a big meeting at the Conservatoire and decided that from now on we would stop having a Guitar Prize and concentrate solely on the Legacy band. The lineup for the band will change over time as some students finish their courses and new comers will take their places. It will be great to have them learning and performing Phil’s compositions. When Phil formed his band In Cahoots in 1983 the publicity that went out stated: 'In Cahoots play the Music of Phil Miller'. The Phil Miller Legacy Band will keep his music alive in the same way."

https://www.facebook.com/PhilMillerTheLegacy
https://philmillerthelegacy.com/soft-machine-gig
https://www.bcu.ac.uk/collections/phil-miller

28 febbraio 2026

Documentazione di una recente e ormai rara apparizione pubblica di Joan La Barbara è disponibile da pochi giorni su YT: è la presentazione quasi integrale - manca all'appello soltanto Solitary Journeys of the Mind - del suo programma Sound Paintings and Sonic Animations al festival Skaņu Mežs di Riga (Lettonia) dell'ottobre scorso, durante il quale ha tenuto anche una seguitissima conferenza-laboratorio avente per titolo quello del suo splendido album d'esordio (Wizard Records, 1976): Voice is the Original Instrument.

Joan La Barbara’s career as a composer, performer, sound artist, and actor explores the human voice as a multi-faceted instrument, expanding traditional boundaries and developing a unique vocabulary of experimental and extended vocal techniques: multiphonics, circular singing, ululation, and glottal clicks that have become her signature sounds, influencing several generations of composers and singers. "Joan La Barbara has brought her adventures on American contemporary music’s wildest frontiers, while her own compositions and shamanistic sound paintings place the soprano voice at the outer limits of human experience." (Julian Cowley)