Robert Wyatt - Recent Years

Recent Years

In June 2001 Wyatt was curator of the Meltdown festival, and sang "Comfortably Numb" with David Gilmour at the festival. It was recorded on Gilmour's DVD David Gilmour in Concert.

In January 2003 BBC Four broadcast Free Will and Testament, a programme featuring performance footage of Wyatt with musicians Larry Stabbins, Jennifer Maidman, Liam Genockey, Annie Whitehead and Janette Mason, and interviews with John Peel, Brian Eno, Annie Whitehead, Alfie and Wyatt himself. Later in 2003, the Mercury Music Prize nominated album Cuckooland was released.

In 2004 Wyatt collaborated with Björk on the song "Submarine" which was released on her fifth album Medúlla.

He lives in Louth, Lincolnshire and he has equipment in his bedroom where he records himself and his albums. We brought a G4 and Pro Tools and recorded it in one afternoon. He's such an extraordinary singer. Before he left, he insisted to give us a scale of his voice, where he sings all the tones – and he has the most amazing range, like 5 or 6 octaves. What's really interesting about his range is that each octave is of a totally different character. We actually ended up using that later for "Oceania", we used what he calls the 'Wyattron'. — Björk, Xfm, 25 August 2004

In 2006 Wyatt played with David Gilmour on Gilmour's new release On an Island, singing and playing cornet and percussion on "Then I Close My Eyes". Wyatt performed as a guest at Gilmour's series of Royal Albert Hall concerts, playing his cornet solo for this song. This is documented on the Remember That Night DVD and Blu-ray, released in 2007. Wyatt also read passages from the novels of Haruki Murakami for Max Richter's album Songs from Before.

In 2006 Wyatt collaborated with Steve Nieve and Muriel Teodori on the opera Welcome to the Voice. Wyatt interprets the character 'the Friend', both singing and playing pocket trumpet. Welcome to the Voice is an opera in one unique scene, on the street in front of an opera house. Wyatt's contribution to the recording was recorded at Phil Manzanera's home studio in North London. Welcome to the Voice was released in May 2007 on Deutsche Grammophon, and the recording features Robert Wyatt, Barbara Bonney, Sting, Amanda Roocroft, Elvis Costello, Nathalie Manfrino, Brodsky Quartet, Sara Fulgoni, Ned Rothenberg, Antoine Quessada, Marc Ribot, Steve Nieve and Muriel Teodori.

In March 2007 it was announced that Wyatt was working on a new solo album entitled Comicopera. It was released in October 2007 on the Domino Records label, a large independent label housing such big indie stars as Arctic Monkeys, Pavement, Neutral Milk Hotel and Elliott Smith.

In 2008 Domino re-released Wyatt's Drury Lane, Rock Bottom, Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard, Nothing Can Stop Us, Old Rottenhat, Dondestan, Shleep, EPs and Cuckooland on CD and vinyl.

In May 2009 Wyatt appeared on the album Around Robert Wyatt by the French Orchestre National de Jazz.

Wyatt was one of the guest editors of BBC Radio 4's Today programme, working on the 1 January 2010 programme. Among other things he advocated greater prominence for amateur choirs, and admitted to a preference for them over professional choirs "because there's a greater sense of commitment and meaning in their singing."

In December 2010 Wyatt was asked by The Guardian to choose his top ten favourite pop songs for its audio Advent calendar.