Articles

Hugh Hopper: The Gift of Purpose

By Mark Redlefsen

Posthumously released under the name of late ex-Soft Machine/Soft Machine Legacy bassist Hugh Hopper, The Gift of Purpose captures a live studio performance from early 2008, featuring a trio project called Bone, along with guitarist Nick Didkovsky and drummer John Roulat. Rreleased as a benefit for Hopper's family--to which all proceeds of the sale of the disc will go--it serves as one last look back upon the playing, and compositional skills of this highly influential artist. The ...

Humi: Dune

By Nic Jones

In Hugh Hopper's case, age seems to be bringing with it a certain restlessness of spirit. This duo with Yumi Hara Cawkwell mines a seam of disturbed minimalism the surface of which is ruffled and undermined by Hopper's deft way with lower end sonics and Cawkwell's declamatory yet understated vocals.

It all comes together on “Hopeful Impressions Of Happiness" where any dippiness implicit in the title is put to rest by Hopper's way with tape loops and electronics and Cawkwell's ...

Humi (Hugh Hopper / Yumi Hara Cawkwell): Dune

By John Kelman

One well-known artist; the other, not-so. Bassist Hugh Hopper first came to public attention as a member of legendary British group Soft Machine in the late 1960s, but since then the experimental disposition that ultimately resulted in his leaving that band has been heard across a spectrum of projects, from the jamband fusion-centricity of Soft Machine Legacy (MoonJune, 2006) to the spontaneous improvisation of Soft Mountain (Hux, 2007) and experimental looping of The Stolen Hour (Burning Shed, 2004), a multi-media ...

Hugh Hopper: Idiom As A Means To No End

By Nic Jones

Hugh Hopper started out on his path through music as a stalwart of the British Canterbury scene, from which came bands including Soft Machine, of which Hopper was a member for five years, Caravan and Hatfield and The North. In a sense he's embodied the music which emerged from that scene, which might be best described as an idiosyncratic take on jazz-rock fusion. Any pigeonholing this might imply does him an injustice however, as it takes no account of his ...

Hugh Hopper: Numero D'Vol

By Glenn Astarita

Legendary British bassist Hugh Hopper steps aside from his duties with Soft Machine Legacy to further his solo career, spanning back to the 1970s during those astounding Canterbury progressive-rock years. Unlike previous endeavors, the bassist integrates elements of the avant modern British jazz scene, largely due to the performance of estimable saxophonist Simon Picard. And speaking of legends, what a welcome surprise to hear drummer Charles Hayward (This Heat, Massacre) driving the often-pulsating back-beats. Hopper sports his somewhat patented monster-fuzz ...

Hugh Hopper: Numero D'Vol

By Nic Jones

Hugh Hopper's a busy man as far as recording goes these days, and this one comes more or less immediately after Soft Machine Legacy's Steam on the same label. Comparison between the two perhaps reveals this one as a more varied affair, with the music lacking the air of tension that's such a constructive feature of the other title. This music however stands up in its own right, and the fact that it's been put out by a quartet in ...

Hugh Hopper: Hopper Tunity Box

By Nic Jones

In chronological terms Kevin Ayers and Hugh Hopper were the bass players in the most worthwhile editions of the British band Soft Machine, an outfit which, in the days before they became a fairly routine jazz-rock band, exhibited truly progressive ideals in terms of musical scope. Hopper left the band in 1972, and in August of the same year he recorded the album 1984 (reissued by Cuneiform in 1998), which the benefit of hindsight reveals as containing some of the ...