By Denny Dyroff, Entertainment Editor, The Times
Soft Machine
Any discussion of British bands with impressive longevity has to include Soft Machine.
Soft Machine (billed as The Soft Machine up until 1969 or 1970) were formed in mid-1966 by Robert Wyatt (drums, vocals), Kevin Ayers (bass, guitar, vocals), Daevid Allen (guitar) and Mike Ratledge (organ).
Allen, Wyatt and future bassist Hugh Hopper had first played together in the Daevid Allen Trio in 1963, occasionally accompanied by Ratledge. Wyatt, Ayers and Hopper had been founding members of The Wilde Flowers, later incarnations of which would include future members of another Canterbury band, Caravan.
Half of that line-up has already passed away – Ayers in 2013 and Allen in 2015. Two other members of Soft Machine’s roster in the 1960s have also crossed over – Elton Dean in 2006 and Hugh Hopper in 2009.
But, just like the Energizer Bunny, Soft Machine keeps on going and going. Over the past five decades, there have been almost 30 different band members.
On October 4, Soft Machine will visit the area for a show at the Sellersville Theater (24 West Temple Avenue, Sellersville, 215-257-5808, www.st94.com).
The current Soft Machine line-up features John Etheridge (guitars), Theo Travis (saxes, flutes, Fender Rhodes piano, electronics), Fred Thelonious Baker (fretless bass) and Asaf Sirkis (drums).
Soft Machine is touring in support of its a brand-new album, “Other Doors,” which features mostly new material along with two numbers drawn from their extensive historical repertoire.
“We recorded the album in summer 2022,” said Travis, during a phone interview last week from a tour stop in Toledo, Spain to play at Leonardo’s Festival.
“Other Doors” was recorded at Temple Music Studios, a facility owned by the late Jon Hiseman during July and August 2022. The band used Ru Lemer, who has a reputation as a brilliant engineer.
“Jon Hiseman’s studio is in Surrey,” said Travis. “It’s a great studio. We recorded our previous album, ‘Hidden Details,’ there in 2018.The studio has a very natural sound.”
Travis is a veteran British musician who previously has played with King Crimson, Gong, Travis & Fripp, and David Gilmour.
“I’ve lived with music from age six or seven – just listening to my parents’ records,” said Travis, who will be 60 next July.
“When I was eight, I bought my first single – ‘Feel the Need in Me.’ My first album purchase was ‘Tanx’ by T. Rex.”
Travis plays sax for Soft Machine – and his other band, Double Talk.
“I started playing music — classical flute — when I was eight or nine,” said Travis, who grew up in Birmingham. “I also played bass. When I was 15, I borrowed my sister’s alto sax.
“Now, I play tenor sax mostly as well as some soprano sax. Major influences have been John Coltrane, Michael Brecker and Pharoah Sanders.”
Ironically, Soft Machine was not an early influence.
“I didn’t really listen to Soft Machine,” said Travis, who has also worked with Harold Budd, Bass Communion, Burnt Friedman, No-Man, Porcupine Tree, The Tangent and David Sylvian.
“A friend had ‘Fifth’ (Soft Machine’s 1972 album) and then I didn’t listen to another Soft Machine record for 15 years. I was more into Yes, The Who, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin.”
Travis became involved with Soft Machine in 2006. Elton Dean, who played sax, flute and keyboard for the band from starting in 1969, passed away in 2006.
“Elton was ill in early 2006,” said Travis, who now calls North London home. “Soft Machine was looking for a temporary replacement. I had played with John Etheridge and Hugh Hopper in other bands, and they asked me. Sadly, Elton passed away later that year. Now, I’ve been in Soft Machine for 17 years.”
With more than 40 albums from which to draw material, Soft Machine has no shortage of songs to play live.
“We go right back to the beginning – all the way to ‘Joy of a Toy’ from the first album. We play songs from ‘Third,’ ‘Fourth,’ ‘Fifth’ and ‘Bundles.’
“We kind of cover the entire catalogue. We make a point of mixing up new material with classic stuff. On this tour, it’s a 50-minute set, intermission, a 50-minute set and an encore. The songs change quite a lot from night to night. It’s a mix of fixed parts and free improvisation.”
Video link for Soft Machine – https://youtu.be/-bsCDMHFGk0.
The show at the Sellersville Theater on October 4 will start at p.m.
Tickets prices start at $29.50.
Seth Glier
The Sellersville Theater will also be presenting Seth Glier on a bill with Tom Rush on October 13.
However, Glier’s many fans in the area do not have to wait that long or travel that far to see Glier perform.
On October 4, Glier will headline a show at 118 North (118 North Wayne Avenue, Wayne, www.118northwayne.com).
“The Coronation” is the Grammy Nominee’s sixth album. It was released in 2021 on Rachael Sage’s label, MPress Records.
The album combined elements of folk, pop, and electronica and explored themes of growth, forgiveness, and envisioning a better world.
His forthcoming album, “Everything,” is a collection of songs inviting the listener to imagine a future in which humans and the planet are re-aligned in mutual restoration.
“I wrote the first song for the album – ‘Mammoth’ — maybe three years ago,” said Glier, during a phone interview Tuesday night from his home in western Massachusetts.
“It caught me off guard. It’s a song about the resurrection of a woolly mammoth. It’s written from the perspective of a woolly mammoth – where does a woolly mammoth belong?
“I was in the middle of making my last record – ‘The Coronation,’ ‘Woolly Mammoth’ was the only song that didn’t belong on ‘The Coronation’ – so, I saved it for the next album.
“During COVID, I was insulating my attic and I listened to a podcast by Ayanna Elizabeth Johnson called, ‘How to Save the Planet.’ It asked – what are you good at, what are you good at doing, and what is work that needs to be done?”
According to Johnson, “I think the thing that we’re really hoping people get out of listening is an understanding of just the multitude of ways that they can be a part of climate solutions. We want to show the diversity of work that needs doing and of ways that you can contribute to it.
“What we hope is that people will see themselves in this work somewhere, whether it’s protesting pipelines and land defense, or practicing regenerative agriculture, or reforming the grid, or getting excited about offshore wind energy. We really do need such a diversity of areas, of expertise, of people. We’ve got a lot of stuff to do and fix. We’re going to need everyone.”
That was an inspiration for Glier.
“As a songwriter, I wanted to build a whole record about climate,” said Glier. “I started learning about who, where and why. I found stories that interested me.
“One of the threats to the climate is the way we look at problems. We look at it as a binary question. We need to look at solutions we already have.”
The earth speaks to us in a myriad of ways — through ice cores, through uplift and erosion, through tree ring — languages we have the potential to restore our literacy in. Reconnecting with these quiet messages has set Glier on a path of channeling nature’s longing for communion with humanity into song. “Everything” is a collection of eight songs inviting us to imagine a future in which humans and the planet are re-aligned into mutual restoration.
Each song presents a practical climate solution with concrete optimism. The album’s title track was inspired by an experience Glier had while mushroom foraging.
“For the last three years, I’ve been obsessed with foraging for wild mushrooms,” said Glier. “The grounds are pretty fertile around here. One day, I picked up a chantarelle mushroom and it was so sweet smelling.”
It created a strange reaction for Glier.
According to Glier, “When I brought it towards my nose, I first smelled sweet apricot and then my spine straightened suddenly. The feeling was like déjà vu. It was a ‘first time,’ yet somewhere inside of me I had done this once before. I was reconnecting to a knowledge I had already known.”
Obsession had begun.
“I watched a movie about foraging,” said Glier. “I saw how mushrooms were already a part of my life. I started growing mushrooms in our guest room.
“Mushrooms are very intelligent plants. They are highly creative, and they communicate with each other. Learning about mushrooms has totally changed me as a person.”
Glier’s gifts are an innate curiosity and a fierce desire to connect with other people.
His musical acumen provides him with a vehicle for both. He was worked as a cultural diplomat for the US State Department and collaborated with musicians in Ukraine, Mongolia, China, and Mexico. Glier has shared the bill with a diverse list of artists including Ronnie Spector, James Taylor, Ani DiFranco, & Glen Campbell.
As a producer, music director, or studio musician he has collaborated with Sophie B. Hawkins, Tom Rush, Antje Duvekot, Richard Shindell, Doctora Qingona, Dar Williams, Nick Carter, & Cyndi Lauper.
“For the last 15 years, I’ve been the music director for Sophie B. Hawkins,” said Glier.
Glier is a five-time Independent Music Award winner and received a Grammy nomination for his album, “The Next Right Thing.” With a commitment to using songwriting as a tool for positive change, he has written with the students in Parkland, FL for the “Parkland Project,” worked with ChildFund International and Rock The Vote.
He has also cowritten with soldiers at Walter Reed Army Hospital and is an advocate for autism awareness citing his autistic brother Jamie as his greatest non-musical musical influence. The Massachusetts native has also been a TEDx Speaker.
One of Glier’s other connections with nature is his affinity for birds which was on display in his album prior to “The Coronation” – “Birds.”
“Birds,” which was released in 2017, is an album for the birds, inspired by birds and made with the help of birds.
Glier recorded “Birds” in an airy loft in western Massachusetts outfitted with a grand piano and floor-to-ceiling windows. Birds roost just outside those windows, on the roof of the converted mill building where he lives, and they became his sympathetic audience while Glier made the album.
“I got a lot of comfort talking to the birds outside my window,” said Glier. “I’d talk to them frequently to see how they thought things were going with the music.
“We communicated well. It was definitely spiritual to make that kind of connection. That was the catalyst that got me into writing these songs.”
It was the death of his brother and the relationship they had that provided the focus for the songs.
“There were a lot of intense moments – first birthday without my brother, first Thanksgiving without my brother,” said Glier. “That was also calling me to stay close to home and use an insular environment to pour emotions into my writing.
“My brother was born with autism and had seizure disorders. He was in the hospital for six weeks at the end. We were very close.
“He was my greatest non-musical influence. He was non-verbal. When we were growing up, I had to get up and give him breakfast. He taught me new ways of communication without words. That’s why I can communicate so well with the birds.”
The birds will not join him on his trip south this week, but he will be joined by Dina Hall.
“My live shows start with a local non-profit person talking,” said Glier. “Then, I’ll play ‘Everything’ front-to-finish followed by a set of older songs.
“With ‘Everything,’ I’m putting out each of the album’s songs – one each month up until its release in January. There will be a video for every song and two live videos for each. Each song features a different climate solution accompanied by storytelling.”
Video link for Seth Glier — https://youtu.be/sdWKxcAaM48.
The Seth Glier show at 118 North on October 4 with Dina Hall will start at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets are $10.
