Soft Machine - Fourth (1971)

Tracklist

01 - Teeth
02 - Kings And Queens
03 - Fletcher's Blemish
04 - Virtually Part 1
05 - Virtually Part 2
06 - Virtually Part 3
07 - Virtually Part 4

personnel :

Hugh Hopper – bass guitar
Mike Ratledge – (Lowrey) organ, (Wurlitzer) piano
Robert Wyatt – drums
Elton Dean – alto saxophone, saxello

with

Roy Babbington – double bass (1,3,4,6)
Mark Charig – cornet (2,3,4)
Nick Evans – trombone (1,2,4)
Jimmy Hastings – alto flute (6), bass clarinet (1,6)
Alan Skidmore – tenor saxophone (1,6)

Fourth is a 1971 studio album by the Canterbury band Soft Machine. The album is also titled Four or 4 in the USA; the numeral "4" is the title as shown on the cover in all countries, but a written-out title appears on the spine and label. This was the group's first all-instrumental album, although their previous album Third had almost completed the band's move in this direction toward instrumental jazz, and a complete abandonment of their original self-presentation as a psychedelic pop group, or progressive rock group. It was also the last of their albums to include drummer and founding member Robert Wyatt who afterwards left to record a solo album, The End of an Ear (in which he described himself on the cover as an "out of work pop singer"), and then founded a new group, Matching Mole, whose name was a pun on "Soft Machine" as pronounced in French: "Machine Molle". Like the previous Soft Machine album, this one uses session musicians who were not regarded as full group members, but toured with the band for live performances.