Daevid Allen and Gong

In 1967, the Australian guitarist Daevid Allen went to France with the newly formed Soft Machine, but he was unable to return to Great Britain due to irregularities with his passport. He therefore settled in Paris, where his girlfriend Gilli Smyth, a poet and journalist, was living. For a few months, the two improvised music and poetry performances in underground venues. In 1968, local musicians joined them, and thus a jazz-rock group was born, Gong, which even accompanied Don Cherry in Scandinavia. These were the years of May 1968, the student movement, and the counterculture. Smyth and Allen, although more tied to hippie culture than to the agit-prop milieu, were influenced by the revolutionary mood.

Supported by a Greek activist, Karakos, who founded the alternative label BYG, the Gong regrouped and in October 1969 recorded their first album, Magick Brother Mystick Sister (BYG, 1970). The band consisted of eight musicians, including promising talents such as Didier Malherbe (sax) and Christian Tritsch (bass). Nursery-like melodies, studio effects, and drunken chants contribute to making the album an extreme artifact of 1967 acid rock. However, the songs are blurred and clumsy (Gong Song).

A few months later, the soundtrack for the film Continental Circus (Philips, 1971) was released. For this recording, Smyth, Allen, Malherbe, and Tritsch were joined by drummer Pip Pyle. The album contains three long jams, Blues For Findlay, its instrumental version, and What Do You Want, which invent an even more disjointed form of acid rock.

Meanwhile, Allen finally managed to return to England, where in February 1971 he recorded the album Banana Moon (BYG, 1971), credited solely to Daevid Allen rather than to Gong. The lineup included Robert Wyatt, Gary Wright, Maggie Bell, and other English musicians. Most of the tracks were not written by Allen and are still more or less improvised cauldrons of bizarre ideas, but the longest track, a 15-minute surrealist poem à la Frank Zappa, Stoned-Innocent Frankenstein And His Adventures In The Land Of Flip, leaves no doubt about the musician’s genius.

In September 1971, Gong’s first official album, Camembert Electrique (BYG, 1971), was ready. The group had stabilized with a five-member lineup (Allen, Smyth, Malherbe, Tritsch, Pyle), while keyboardist Tim Blake came and went. Each member assumed a stage name, as was customary in Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band.
In an era of comic book superheroes (the Marvel comics) and cinema, Allen also attempted to depict the saga of an extraterrestrial civilization, whose inhabitants, the “pixies with vase-shaped heads,” travel in coffee cups, and whose national hero is named Zero. The irony in the lyrics is clearly Zappa-inspired, but the “Marvel-rock” as a whole is unique and original: Smyth’s astonished and spirited vocals, carnival-like brass, jazz rhythms, the spatial breathing of keyboards, and nursery rhymes popping up at the most unexpected moments.
The group operates across three characteristic registers. In the playful register, they display unrestrained childlike behavior (Oh Mother), whirl through the cabaret frenzy of You Can't Kill Me, stage humorous sketches (And You Tried So Hard), and paint the rickety epic and drunken religiosity of I've Bin Stoned Before. In the space-rock register, Smyth’s elongated vowels float weightlessly over the shapeless dissonances of the instruments (I Am Your Fantasy, Fohat Digs Holes In Space), creating an overall soft, stellar, and watery music full of reflections and incandescence. In the free vocal register, Smyth expresses hallucinogenic orgasms (I Am Your Animal), including the cosmic visions mentioned above. This headlong ride through the amusement park of psychedelic music culminates in the kaleidoscopic fantasy of Tropical Fish / Selene.

Allen, Tritsch, Malherbe, Smyth and Pyle accompanied the singer and multi-instrumentalist Jack-Alain "Melmoth" Leger on Obsolete (Shandar, 1971 - Mantra Mantra, 2007), credited to Dashiell Hedayat and sung in French. Chrysler is a hard-rocking melodic ditty with acid guitar and effects. The 21-minute suite Cielo Drive is a hypnotic jazzy tribal cosmic jam that Melmoth simply comments in spoken word. After eight minutes the guitar intones a rude riff worthy of Southern boogie bands. Then the singer mostly shuts up and the band indulges in the most psychedelic section, a series of variations on a melodic theme that even draws a flute into the agon. The last part is a gentle acoustic lullaby in Renaissance style. The whole is a bit too confused to fit in Gong's pantheon.

After this bizarre interlude, Gong continued the fairy tale sketched in Camembert Electrique—that of the “pot-head pixies”—with Flying Teapot – Radio Gnome Invisible (Virgin, 1973), recorded in February 1973. This concept album fuses fairy tale, operetta, cartoon, and expressionist theater like no one had ever dared before; it is their masterpiece and one of the greatest masterpieces of rock music. Allen, in the role of the cosmic jester, sketches an anarchic utopia and coins a style that blends jazz, hard rock, and music-hall.
The lineup now included Tim Blake (synthesizer) and Steve Hillage (guitar), while Pip Pyle had moved to Hatfield & The North. The power of this formation is impressive. Every second of music invents something new, turning each track into a frenzied collage of colors and images. The surrealism and nonsense of these sound frescoes transcend paradox. The bacchanal takes perfectly geometric forms, the infernal chaos gains a paradisiacal character, and the irrational demonstrates impossible theorems. Smyth, in the role of a seductive space witch, leads grotesquely elegant dances with saxophone, synthesizer, and guitar.
The overture is a bold vaudeville that immediately displays its arsenal of tricks: swirling synths, Smyth’s orgasmic vocals, rounds of saxophones, martial bass drums, cacophonous fractures, and mantric slogans like “banana nirvana manana.” With the same village-band spirit and a hard-rock riff, the other manifesto track, Pot Head Pixies, delivers a no-less farcical sketch-chorus.

The major suites that realize the “continental circus” program are two. Flying Teapot opens with the sparse, disjointed sounds of cosmic space, a dusting of galactic notes that fold back on themselves. Over a soft tribal base, the music expands into a liquid jazz-rock that grows ever faster, stretches like a bow, and leaps over saxophones, guitar, and delirious drums, finally exploding with dissonant dixieland and syncopated riffs. The journey begins across the vast expanses of the cosmos, into the rarefied interstellar chaos with an epileptic crescendo of ever-obsessive tribal rhythms, dense chaos of free horns, synths, and guitars; from the sudden silence that follows emerges a delirious solo by new drummer Laurie Allan: tip-tap of stilts, Japanese breathings and sticks, unrestrained tam-tam. Allen’s “bananaist” flair (village-fair bandiness, centenarian storytellers, acrobatic mimes) gives birth to nonsense jazz-rock.
Introduced by a solo from Blake, Octave Doctors gives rise to the heroic-comic suite of Zero The Hero. From the first Orientalizing slashes, it plunges rapidly into a Caribbean rhythm, a dissolute nocturnal jazz, and a crescendoing electronic vocal vortex (another shocking rhythmic progression by Allan and the whole orchestra in a bacchanal that explodes into driving sax riffs, the “bass” of the situation), finally disappearing into Smyth’s sinister cries. The panels are well-defined, forming distinct movements of the suite, each independently arranged and orchestrated, yet all perfectly glued in sequence. Malherbe’s sax, Allan’s drums, and Smyth’s vocals are the most innovative achievements in an ensemble sound without precedent.
Rounds of sax and a nursery rhyme lead into a sensual-decadent gem like Witch’s Song, the sublimation of Smyth’s lascivious breaths in her favorite poses as a wicked, scatterbrained space-club witch-entertainer—the grand finale of the operetta.

The second (or third) part of the saga was recorded in August of the same year, demonstrating the group’s happy mental state, now augmented by bassist Mike Howlett and versatile percussionist Pierre Moerlen. Even Angel’s Egg (Virgin, 1973) overflows with ideas. The sound, increasingly centered on Blake’s keyboards, has reached an almost baroque elegance. The main difference from the previous album is a more compact structure: the long, rambling tracks give way to more concise and concentrated songs. The irony, at the same time, is milder, more urbane, and sophisticated. The Gong are evolving from a subversive cell into a family-friendly little orchestra.
It is no coincidence that Allen is in the minority for the first time. The supporting members craft Other Side Of The Sky over a sparse electronic base with Indian-inflected sax (Blake), Prostitute Poem, a splendidly decadent portrait of a Parisian call girl set to tablas and waltz (Smyth), Love Is How I Make It, a symphony for Chinese bells (Moerlen), and I Never Glid Before, a Hillage rock and roll piece. Allen’s galactic music-hall style is complemented by Sold To The Highest Buddha and the Caribbean funk of Oily Way, though both are far less boisterous than usual. A nod to psychedelic bandmanship can be found in the brief instrumental episodes of Castle In The Clouds, Outer Temple, and especially Flute Salad (Malherbe’s solemn mantra).
Blake’s synth takes on prominence, and Moerlen’s polyglot percussion replaces Pyle’s solid rock progressions. The sound inevitably becomes weaker, though more refined. It is no coincidence that the instrumental passages are now the absolute domain of Malherbe.

The same septet (Allen, Smyth, Malherbe, Hillage, Blake, Howlett, Moerlen) concluded the alien trilogy with You (Virgin, 1974), recorded in August 1974. The three long suites, The Isle Of Everywhere, You Never Blow Yr Trip Forever, and A Sprinkling Of Clouds, mostly seem to recycle stereotypes from previous albums. The group counterpoint is impeccable, but ideas are largely lacking. The Gong are becoming a pure abstraction, a “sound” for its own sake, somewhat like Pink Floyd on Dark Side Of The Moon.
It is no coincidence that Allen and Smyth decide to leave the group and retreat to Mallorca. Even Hillage takes the opportunity to launch his solo career.
The Gong reorganize around Pierre Moerlen (a quintet that is four-fifths French) and record a much more commercial album, Shamal (Virgin, 1976). The tracks (Wingful Of Eyes, Chandra, Bambooji, Cat In Clark's Shoes, Shamal) are long, but very little actually happens.

After Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth moved to Spain and Steve Hillage launched his solo career, Gong reorganized around Pierre Moerlen (four French musicians out of five) and recorded a much more commercial album, Shamal (Virgin, 1976). The songs (Wingful Of Eyes, Chandra, Bambooji, Cat In Clark's Shoes, Shamal) are lengthy, but very little happens.

For Gazeuse (Virgin, 1977), also released as Expresso (1977), Malherbe and Moerlen recruited guitarist Allan Holdsworth. The addition moved the band towards jazz-rock, with excellent results in Expresso and Shadows Of. If Esnuria displayed the same baroque excesses of the previous album, Percolations was Moerlen's percussive masterpiece.

Moerlen was all over the place on Expresso II (Virgin, 1978), signaling that Gong was becoming his solo project with a revolving cast of musicians. He renamed the band Pierre Moerlen's Gong and released Downwind (Arista, 1979), targeting the discos and the night clubs. Moerlen, bassist Hansford Rowe and guitarist Bon Lozaga were the axis of this edition of Gong on Time is the Key (Arista, 1979) and Leave It Open (Arista, 1981). Lozaga left before Breakthrough (ARC, 1986) and Second Wind (Line, 1989), but formed his own Gongzilla and released Suffer (LoLo, 1995), a far better album than Moerlen ever did.

In the meantime, Allen had recorded Good Morning (Virgin, 1976) with a French band, and the acoustic Now Is The Happiest Time Of Your Life (Affinity, 1977) in Spain. The last time Daevid Allen and his wife had used the name of his band was Live Floating Anarchy (Charly, 1978), credited to Planet Gong (actually a collaboration with Here And Now).

Then Allen left his wife and relocated to New York, where he met Bill Laswell and became part of the new-wave scene. While Allen was releasing the albums N'Existe Pas (Charly, 1979) and Divided Alien Playbax 80 (Charly, 1982), the mini-album The Death of Rock (Shangai, 1983) and the EP Alien In New York (1983) under his own name, he also resurrected Gong in New York, renaming them New York's Gong (to differentiate them from Pierre Moerlen's Gong) and releasing About Time (Charly, 1980). Allen also teamed with Mark Kramer on Who's Afraid (Shimmy Disc, 1993). and with keyboardist David Tolley on Don't Stop (Shanghai, 1984).

In 1981 Allen had already relocated to his native Australia, married again, embraced spirituality and drone music, and finally found some peace, reflected on the albums The Invisible Opera Company of Tibet (Voiceprint, 1987), The Jewel in the Lotus (GAS, 1995) and Glissando Spirit (GAS, 1996), all credited to the IOC; on the series The Seven Drones (Voiceprint, 1990), credited to Ja-am; and on the albums under his own name, such as Australia Aquaria (Demi-Monde, 1991), recorded before 1989, Twelve Selves (Voiceprint, 1993), Twenty-Two Meanings (Gliss, 1999).

In between those recordings, Daevid Allen had returned to England to celebrate his 50th birthday and had toured with Gong Maison (Demi-Monde, 1989). Continuing on to France, Allen resurrected Gong (Malherbe and Pyle) for Shapeshifter (Celluloid, 1992).

Two Allen compositions (The Owly Song, I Am My Own Lover) appeared on The Owl and the Tree (Demi-Monde, 1990).

Another American sojourn yielded Dreaming A Dream (GAS, 1995) and a new collaboration with Kramer, Hit Men (Shimmy Disc, 1996). Eat Me Baby I'm A Jellybean (GAS, 1998) was recorded in Los Angeles with Didier Malherbe and others.

The Birthday Party (GAS, 1995) reunited Allen, Smyth, Malherbe, Blake, Howlett and Pyle to celebrate Gong's 25th anniversary.

Gong's Zero To Infinity (Snapper, 2000) and OK Friends (GAS, 2002) update the sound of Gong to the 21st century.

A new decade brought Allen a new residence (San Francisco) and a new project: University of Errors. In the age of post-rock, this combo (largely drawn from psychdelic improvisers Mushroom) released Money Doesn't Make It (Innerspace, 1999), 2 (GAS, 2000), Ugly Music For Monica (Audiocrash, 2002), Jet Propelled Photographs (Cuneiform, 2004), a remake of Soft Machine's early material. Allen had finally returned with a project worthy of his early albums.

Gilli Smyth began her solo career with Mother (Charly, 1978), helped out by Allen, Malherbe, Tritsch, Pyle and Sam Gopal on tablas. THe stand-out track is the nine-minute Taliesin. Only Malherbe is left on Fairy Tales (Charly, 1979), which features legendary Hawkwind leader Nik Turner. Malherbe and Turner play also on Robot Woman (Butt, 1981), with the catchy Disco At The End Of The World. Robot Woman 2 (Shanghai, 1982) and Robot Woman 3 (Shanghai, 1989) were disappointing and seemed to end her career. Wild Child (Demi-Monde, 1994), recorded in 1989 was left unreleased for five years. In the 1990s, Smyth returned with Magenta She Made The World (Voiceprint, 1993), Every Witches Way (Voiceprint, 1993), Eye (Voiceprint, 1994), with the lengthy Ancient and Virtual Reality, Tree In Fish (Tapestry, 1994). A new band helped her cut Electric Shiatsu (Voiceprint, 1999) and It's All A Dream (Gliss, 2001) in Australia.

Didier Malherbe's solo albums include: Bloom (Charly, 1980), Saxo Folies (Koka Media, 1987), Fetish (Tangram, 1989), Zeff (Tangram, 1992), Fluvius (Tangram, 1994). In the 1990s Malherbe and Loy Ehrlich formed the ensemble Hadouk, which released Hadouk (Tangram, 1996), Shamanimal (Melodie, 1991),

Gong's Acid Motherhood (Voiceprint, 2004) is a collaboration with Acid Mothers Temple.

In 2006 Daevid Allen, Steve Hillage and some eight more guitarists (the Glissando Orchestra) performed a hour-long improvisation on a single sustained note.

The Brainville 3 are Daevid Allen on vocals and guitar, Hugh Hopper on bass and Chris Cutler on drums. Trial by Headline (ReR, 2008), mostly derived from live concerts, disjointed garage-blues with demented psychedelic rants and raps. Allen cannot easily be reined in by the superlative rhythm section. His crazed vocals and atonal guitar playing steal the show, for better and for worse. The result is frequently reminiscent of David Thomas without Pere Ubu (and without the vocal range) and with a distinct Sixties vibe. Allen is at his most unpredictable and spaced-out. There is hardly a riff or a refrain that lasts more than a few seconds. Best is the ten-minute istrumental cacophony driven by percussion of I Bin Stoned Before.

Daevid Allen died in March 2015 at the age of 77.

Gilli Smyth died in August 2016 at the age of 83.