Robert Wyatt/Gilad Atzmon/Ros Stephen, For The Ghosts Within

By John Lane

Say what you will about Robert Wyatt, but he has never done anything for the fast buck.

What’s more, in an age where the music industry is in an odd state of flux, Robert Wyatt seems to be among the rare legacy laborers who remain somehow protected. Or maybe he’s just kept his head down and tried to stay inconspicuous.

Either way, the union of Robert Wyatt and Domino Records appears to be a joyous match, since they’ve taken great care to restore his back catalog and ensure that his new efforts still come forth on good ol’ fashioned plastic disc (CDs, remember those?). There’s an obvious argument to be made that For The Ghosts Within is a small group effort, but the heart of this—the driving engine—is really Robert Wyatt.

Robert Wyatt has often professed to wishing he had been born during the jazz age; he is a devout aficionado of jazz recordings, and he will most assuredly drop jazz references in interviews quicker than any pop or rock references. He clearly reveres the art form, and thus For The Ghosts Within seems to satisfy that particular jones for Wyatt; at least three standards (“Lush Life,” “In A Sentimental Mood,” and “Round Midnight”) stand out in this collection.

But what kind of animal is this album, exactly? Well, remember that whatever medium Wyatt grabs hold of, it is distilled into a delicate, idiosyncratic essence that becomes uniquely his, which is to say, this is not a jazz album in the predictable Brubeck manner. It’s jazz siphoned through the Wyatt-angelic-melancholy-ethereal-English machine.

The lead-off song “Laura,” for example, has the spine of a torch ballad with its sweeping strings and nearly-weeping vocals, and the jazz element is re-tinkered to become something that combines a hybrid of other musical elements (part-Broadway musical, dare I say it).

The stand-out track for me is “The Ghosts Within”, with its flute/woodwind sound treading a fine line between something jazz-y and something deeply ancient, almost South American in texture.

Lastly, Wyatt closes the album with the familiar “What A Wonderful World.” Everyone under the sun knows the version that Louis Armstrong set in stone, but ah, Wyatt’s version of it really touches the nerve of. . . well, the fine line between joy and despondency. The instrumentation by his cohorts Atzmon and Stephen are a natural fit.

Perhaps Robert Wyatt has found the jazz trio that he has always dreamt of and publicly pleaded for.

For The Ghosts Within is out now on Domino Records. To listen to selections from the album and to order a copy, please visit their website.

For more on Robert Wyatt, please visit his (nearly) official website.