review by daniel

This album was recorded after a tragic accident where former Soft Machine and Matching Mole drummer Robert Wyatt broke his spine. As a consequence he does not play regular drums here, but something that sounds like a hand drum of some kind. He also sings and plays various keyboards, while guest musicians (Mike Oldfield, Fred Frith and others) handle the guitar and bass parts. There are also some (rather dissonant sounding) horns present on two of the five songs.

The absence of regular drums contributes to the slow paced and fragile beauty of the recording. The songs form a continuous flow of slowly developing themes and melodies that sound both weird and achingly beautiful. You might suspect that bizarre lyrics and dissonant horns would detract from the beauty, but somehow it makes sense on this album. Actually, the whole album makes perfect sense when you listen to it, even though it defies description. So if you want something that is strange, unique and beautiful (of course you do!) I cannot think of an album I would rather recommend than this one.