''Land of Cockayne'' is the tenth studio album by the

jazz rock Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, amplifiers, and keyb ...

band Soft Machine, released in 1981. By this point, the band had lost all of its original members. The title refers to the medieval land of plenty. It would be the last album released under the Soft Machine name until '' Hidden Details'' in 2018.

Overview

The album came about as the result of a project in which

Karl Jenkins Sir Karl William Pamp Jenkins (born 17 February 1944) is a Welsh multi-instrumentalist and composer. His best known works include the song " Adiemus" and the ''Adiemus'' album series; '' Palladio''; ''The Armed Man''; and his ''Requiem''. J ...

and John Marshall had been involved featuring top session musicians. The ad hoc band, Rollercoaster, had recently recorded the Stevie Wonder tribute album '' Wonderin''' (1980) and decided to record another album together. Many of the musicians included on the ''Cockayne'' album would make up Soft Machine's final live line-up which played a six-night residency at

Ronnie Scott's Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club is a jazz club that has operated in Soho, London, since 1959. History The club opened on 30 October 1959 in a basement at 39 Gerrard Street in London's Soho district. It was set up and managed by musicians Ronnie Sco ...

in 1984. This is the only Soft Machine album to feature a string section.

Track listing

All compositions by

Side one

#"Over 'n' Above" – 7:24 #"Lotus Groves" – 4:57 #" Isle of the Blessed" – 1:56 #"Panoramania" – 7:07 #"Behind the Crystal Curtain" – 0:53

Side two

#"Palace of Glass" – 3:22 #"Hot-Biscuit Slim" – 7:27 #"(Black) Velvet Mountain" – 5:10 #"Sly Monkey" – 5:00 #"A Lot of What You Fancy..." – 0:35

Personnel

Soft Machine *

– piano, Minimoog,

Yamaha CS-80 The Yamaha CS-80 is an analog synthesizer released in 1977. It supports true 8-voice polyphony, with two independent synthesizer layers per voice each with its own set of front panel controls, in addition to a number of hardwired preset voice set ...

, Synclavier, arranger, conductor * John Marshall – drums, percussion Additional musicians * Allan Holdsworth – lead guitar *

Ray Warleigh Raymond Kenneth Warleigh (28 September 1938 – 21 September 2015) was an Australian alto saxophonist and flautist. Biography Ray Warleigh was born in Sydney, Australia, and migrated to England in 1960, where he quickly established himself as a ...

– alto saxophone, bass flute *

Dick Morrissey Richard Edwin Morrissey (9 May 1940 – 8 November 2000) was a British jazz musician and composer. He played the tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone and flute. Biography Background He was born in Horley, Surrey, England. Dick Morrissey emerg ...

– tenor saxophone *

Alan Parker Sir Alan William Parker (14 February 1944 – 31 July 2020) was an English filmmaker. His early career, beginning in his late teens, was spent as a copywriter and director of television advertisements. After about ten years of filming adverts ...

– rhythm guitar * John Taylor – electric piano *

Jack Bruce John Symon Asher Bruce (14 May 1943 – 25 October 2014) was a Scottish bassist, singer-songwriter, musician and composer. He gained popularity as the primary lead vocalist and ‍bassist ‍of British rock band Cream. After the group disband ...

– bass * Stu Calver – vocals, backing vocals * John Perry – vocals, backing vocals *

Tony Rivers Tony Rivers (born Douglas Anthony Thompson, 21 December 1940, Shildon, County Durham, England) is an English singer, best known for singing with the groups Tony Rivers and the Castaways and Harmony Grass. Additionally, Rivers sang on albums by ...

– vocals, backing vocals Production *

Mike Thorne Mike Thorne (born 25 January 1948) is an English record producer, arranger, composer, engineer, and musician. He started playing the piano at the age of 10. After studying physics at Hertford College, Oxford, in the late 1960s he worked as a ta ...

– production * Roy Ellsworth – artwork * Bill Harman – orchestra leader

References

External links

Soft Machine - ''Land of Cockayne'' (1981) album rating, user reviews, credits & releases
at

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

Soft Machine - ''Land of Cockayne'' (1981) album releases & credits
at

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the ...

Soft Machine - ''Land of Cockayne'' (1981) album to be listened
on

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

Soft Machine - ''Land of Cockayne'' (1981) album to be listened
on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Land of Cockayne Soft Machine albums 1981 albums EMI Records albums Albums produced by Mike Thorne