The Garden of Love (A Jet-Propelled Soft Machine)

The Garden of Love is a double album by the English rock band Soft Machine. It contains a live recording. The album was produced by the Soft Machine themselves and released in 13 March 1970 by Harvest Records in the United Kingdom and by Capitol Records in the United States.

The album was recorded during the French leg of their Tour of Insane Times at the Château d'Herouville, with the exception of the title track which was recorded at the Queen Elizabeth Hall with David Bedford. Kevin Ayers's tracks were recorded at the Abbey Road Studios using tape recordings and sound collages.

Garden of Love performed worse than Songs for Insane Times, peaking in #9 at the UK Album Charts, while it charted in #73 in Billboard 200. The best performances of the album were in France and Italy, both countries it peaked in #3. No singles were released.

Critics received the album with mixed reviews. Some critics compared the sound to King Crimson's records, and other compared it with Pink Floyd's acclaimed The Man and The Journey. The new fans of the group didn't understood the newest album, but the old fans received it with a better appraise. Robert Wyatt and Hugh Hopper consider the album as their experimental peak.

Soft Machine

 * Kevin Ayers - lead guitar, lead and backing vocals [2; 5-6]
 * Robert Wyatt - drums, percussion, backing vocals
 * Mike Ratledge - Lowrey Holiday De Luxe organ, Hohner Pianet, piano
 * Hugh Hopper - bass guitar

Additional personnel

 * Elton Dean – alto saxophone, saxello
 * Lyn Dobson – soprano saxophone, flute [1]
 * Jimmy Hastings – flute, bass clarinet [4]
 * Nick Evans – trombone [4]
 * David Sinclair - organ
 * Neville Whitehead - bass [3]
 * Mark Charig - vornet [3]
 * Peter Jenner - producer