Robert Wyatt
Rock Bottom

In 1974, Robert Wyatt released what can be considered his greatest masterpiece, a monument called Rock Bottom.
Already a member of Soft Machine (with whom he wrote one of the most beautiful songs of all time, the legendary "Moon In June") and Matching Mole, the master of Canterbury had started his solo career in 1970 with The End Of An Ear, an album full of truly ingenious improvisations and vocal experiments, which would form a solid starting base for the definitive consecration of all his art, represented, as mentioned before, by this Rock Bottom.
But to fully understand this work, we must first focus on a key event in Wyatt's life: on June 1, 1973, during a birthday party, Robert fell from a fourth-floor window, losing forever the use of his legs.

Completing the album's material while in the hospital and during convalescence, Wyatt arrives at a profoundly touching reflection on the self and the tragic passage of time surrounding him. Rock Bottom is a dive into the soul, a descent into the depths of our consciousness, as dark and mysterious as those of an ocean. In the most difficult conditions for a man, unable to play his favorite instrument (the drums), confined to a wheelchair, Wyatt manages to demonstrate, despite all adversities, a strong attachment to life, blending the distinctive traits of his music; from the most resigned vocalizations to those full of hope, reaching melodic pursuits that marked his experience in Soft Machine. However, everything is filtered through a gentle and almost relaxed dimension drawn by Wyatt's keyboards (the initial "Sea Song" is the manifesto along with the subsequent "A Last Straw"). Each track completes itself in the next as a single sound flow equivalent to the flow of sea water over our bodies. The pulsating bass of "Little Red Riding Hood Hit The Road" leads us to the most hidden oceanic landscapes, and through this sensory experience, especially at the crucial moment of "Alifib," man realizes that the bottom he has touched is nothing more than a product of his own thought. Man realizes that he is the subject of his own existence and that everything that opposes him is limited, as it is merely an object, although the drama of human existence remains nonetheless.
Having acquired this truth, reinforced by the love for his wife "Alfie" (Alfreda Benge), the main theme of "Alife," Wyatt lets himself go to the resurrection of a new man in the concluding track, the splendid "Little Red Robin Hood Hit The Road," resurfacing for the last time from the depths of his consciousness, finally reopening his eyes after this long journey.

For all these reasons, we can say with absolute certainty that the music contained in Rock Bottom is one of the clearest demonstrations that some albums must be lived before they are heard. Like all masterpieces, Rock Bottom presents a universal scope capable of transcending definitions of time and space; Wyatt managed to capture the feelings of many other contemporary musicians, so much so that all of Canterbury actually bowed before his work, and even today the reactions aroused by these tracks are simply exhilarating.
The guests participating in the album's creation are diverse and numerous: we have old adventure companions like Richard Sinclair and Hugh Hopper on bass, Mike Oldfield on guitar, Mongezi Feza on trumpet, Fred Frith on viola, Gary Windo on saxophone and clarinet, while the production is handled by none other than Nick Mason, drummer of Pink Floyd.
In short, big names for great music... but above all the essence of Robert Wyatt. An essence with no univocal meaning, because Rock Bottom is an album that, due to its psychological and introspective themes, can be subject to various interpretations. One of these is mine, and I hope it can encourage all those who do not yet know this masterpiece to listen to it.