Land of Cockayne (album)


Land of Cockayne is the tenth studio album by the jazz rock band Soft Machine, released in 1981. By this point, the band contained none 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 and John Marshall had been involved featuring top session musicians. The ad hoc band, Rollercoaster, had recently recorded the Stevie Wonder tribute album Wonderin' 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 in 1984. This is the only Soft Machine album to feature a string section. Land of Cockayne could be considered a Karl Jenkins-solo album as it was written by him alone, however former guitar player Allan Holdsworth and drummer John Marshall make contributions leading to its validity as a Soft Machine release.

Track listing

All compositions by Karl Jenkins.

Side one

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

    Side two

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

    Personnel

; Soft Machine :
; Former Soft Machine :
;Former and future Soft Machine:
; Guest musicians :