Robert Wyatt
Cuckooland

"He must be a great man to be Cuchulain's master"

It doesn't happen every day to go to Cuckooland. But if it happens to you, you won't be able to escape its charm. That's because Cuckooland is a distant land without houses, without people, without trees, without anything but nothingness. But it’s an emptiness you can breathe. I would like to show you the way to Cuckooland, but I don't know it, even though I've been there, or perhaps I've nurtured this illusion. In fact, I have no idea where it is. But by now, I know its inhabitants. They are clarinets, trumpets, trombones, saxophones, harmonicas, voices, keyboards, guitars, percussions, double basses, and even a piano. They live stacked one next to another, sometimes without any apparent criterion, which, however, probably exists, and other times in an order that could not be different. You don’t need to strive to find them, they reveal themselves to you. One by one and all together, according to the most suitable circumstances. Anyway, together, you should know, they have decided to create an imaginary, lunar sound. A frontier sound. Near and far from Miles Davis, as well as from Tom Jobim. A sound you could call jazz, other times post-rock, but it enjoys proving you wrong a moment later. A fantastic sound, in the sense that it lives in fantasy and stimulates fantasy. A distant sound because it doesn't seem easily achievable. An illusory sound because it gives the illusion that Cuckooland is now in New Orleans, now in New York, now in London, now in Paris, now... I don’t know. But Cuckooland is nowhere and is everywhere. The inhabitants of Cuckooland have fun. They play with the imagination of those who want to know them. But alone, they would never have succeeded. They needed a great master. They needed a lazy and fascinating voice. Someone who was looking for a second youth after nearly losing the first. Someone who had known drugs, excesses, and musical genius. Someone capable of transfiguring characters like David Gilmour, Brian Eno, and Paul Weller in generating music to be metabolized slowly. A certain Robert Wyatt seemed most suitable for the role. And he did not back down. Because if Cuckooland needed Robert Wyatt, Robert Wyatt needed Cuckooland. And now I too need Cuckooland. And you, who are reading?