Soft Machine - Høvikodden 1971 : 4 x vinyl lps in heavy slip case (due to size and weight, this price for the USA only. Outside of the USA, the price will be adjusted as needed)

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

While the two sets from the second night (February 28, 1971) have been released before, this is the first time that the entire two-night stand has been released. So half of this set is previously completely unreleased.
This is a excellent, stereo recording of the band performing in a relatively small hall; the volume balance between the instruments is not perfect, but there is no other recording by Soft Machine that I know of that sounds as much like the band are performing right in front of you! Additionally, we were able to improve in a modest way the not-perfect balance between the instruments on this edition. The result is, in the words of the late Michael King, who released the Sunday concert on his Reel Recordings label in 2009, “demonstrably the finest recording of the classic Soft Machine quartet ever committed to tape.”
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.

Cuneiform Records · SOFT MACHINE 'Virtually' from "Høvikodden 1971"

LP 1 – February 27, 1971 [1st set]
SIDE A
Facelift
Virtually

SIDE B
Slightly All the Time
Fletcher’s Blemish

LP 2 – February 27, 1971 [2nd set]
SIDE C
Neo-Caliban Grides
Out-Bloody-Rageous
Vocal Improvisation

SIDE D
Eamonn Andrews
All White
Kings and Queens
Teeth
Pigling Bland

LP 3 – February 28, 1971 [1st set]
SIDE E
Facelift
Virtually

SIDE F
Slightly All the Time
Fletcher’s Blemish
Slightly All the Time [encore]

LP 4 – February 28, 1971 [2nd set]
SIDE G
Neo-Caliban Grides
Out-Bloody-Rageous
Vocal Improvisation
Eamonn Andrews
All White

SIDE H
Kings and Queens
Teeth
Pigling Bland