Canterbury Scene Music

Sanguine Hum is classified as Neo-Prog on PA. That should be changed to Canterbury.

It's kind of strange to think that one area is better than the other ... they are all different, and just about every country has its own "Canterbury" (just look at the Scotland/Wales areas!) ... and they are all a bit different. The Spanish have it (you can look at Flamenco, or the Gypsy stuff, or others), the French have it, and so do many other Europeans!

I think that CANTERBURY as we know it, was about folks that had some education, and many of them became music masters and instructors, whereas in other areas this did not happen, and for that the development of the music took shape and a place as "Canterbury", as if it were a style, but I'm not sure it is just a "style" as much as it is something that borrows from jazz, folk, rock and a lot of other musics. The early days of "Canterbury" is full of artists, writers, musicians and many others ... but we do not seem to think that those things matter ... they DO!

I've always joked that for Soft Machine, for example, what had started as "improvisation" in the early days in the words of Robert Wyatt, actually became "compositions", not improvisations ... since the moments and the changes and a lot of the parts of the music are "pre-defined" and sometimes you can hear the whistle say ... FOUL ... here it is ... that new theme! I really think that Robert's book title is a take on this ... INTENTIONALLY, because it would mean the music was not different each and every time! Not improvised as we think or imagine at all!