New drummer Asaf Sirkis didn’t remake Soft Machine in his image but adds a piece that helps to keep a band started in 1966 viable in 2026 with their newest studio album ‘Thirteen.’

Soft Machine is a living musical equation that continues to evolve, while cradling a nest in the cathedral melodies of Canterbury city.

The upshot of ‘4 ½’ is that Steven Wilson’s chaff still beats most of contemporaries’ wheat because his creative zeal doesn’t ever seem to take days off, even for songs he sets aside.

Soft Machine will never exist again, but one of the best of the Canterbury bands still lives on via an alumni band.

Theo Travis and Robert Fripp improvise, but not in ways that fit the typical narrative. No hothouse, smoke-filled jazz club. No porkpie hats and double-breasted suits. Instead, they’ve more often co-mingled in glacial, cerulean placity You May Also Like: Soft Machine – ‘Live at the Baked Potato’ (2020)