Soft Machine

As a central band of what later became known as the Canterbury scene, the British rock band Soft Machine became one of the first British psychedelic acts after its formation in 1966 and later moved into progressive rock and jazz fusion, becoming a purely instrumental band since 1971. Over the years, its constantly fluctuating line-up has included musicians such as founding member and outsider music legend Robert Wyatt, the Police's Andy Summers, John Marshall of Nucleus and fusion guitar giant Allan Holdsworth. They released nine studio albums before disbanding in 1978; over the following decades, various Soft Machine members participated in various follow-up projects, including Soft Heap / Soft Head (1978–88), Soft Ware (1999–2002), Soft Works (2002–04), Soft Mountain (2003) and Soft Bounds (2004). The current iteration of Soft Machine, active under the name since 2015, is led by guitarist John Etheridge, who was a member of the original band from 1975 to 1978; the line-up is rounded out by reed and keyboard player Theo Travis, bassist Fred Thelonious Baker and drummer Asaf Sirkis.