Gong Shi Er Fa

Downwind (1979). Eagerly awaited re-press for this classic album by Pierre Moerlen's Gong featuring Mike Oldfield, Steve Winwood & Mick Taylor. Booklet with restored artwork, photos & liner notes. By the late 1970s Percussionist Pierre Moerlen had taken over the leadership of Gong and had steered the band away from Psychedelic Space Rock and took the band into a Jazz Rock direction, one in which the band excelled. After recording several albums with Virgin, the band now featured Hansford Rowe on bass, Ross Record on guitar, Benoit Moerlen on vibes and Francois Causse on percussion. Moerlen signed with Arista Records in 1978 and recorded this excellent album partially in Mike Oldfield’s studio. Oldfield guested on the superb lengthy title track with fellow guest Steve Winwood, whilst Mick Taylor appeared on the track "What You Know"…

You is the final installment in Gong's legendary Radio Gnome Trilogy, and it marks an important turning point for the band. By 1974, the psychedelic hippie/folk-rock element of the sound that was leader Daevid Allen's most important contribution was beginning to disappear…

This is a classic, the epitome of the band's early Daevid Allen phase with Ph.P.'s (pothead pixies) in full, blazing glory. In its infancy, Gong was a unique prog rock band that branched out in all directions at once while most other prog bands chose simply one path or another. Camembert Electrique is a testament to that…

Between Daevid Allen's departure from the band and Pierre Moerlen's official takeover of the band, there is Shamal. This transitional album contains none of the Allen-inspired psychedelia, but also very little of Moerlen's jazz influence…

The companion piece to The Flying Teapot, Angel's Egg is not your usual progressive rock album. Very quirky, with many, mostly brief compositions, the album is a tad less spacy than Teapot, with just a few psychedelic-inspired lyrics, and it's very technically adept. Angel's Egg opens with a true space rock cut (one of the few on the album), filled with the usual Gilli Smyth space whispering and Daevid Allen voicings, then leads into the cleverly titled "Sold to the Highest Buddha," with Steve Hillage and Didier Malherbe prominent figures…

Gazeuse! was the first in a successful line of strictly jazz-rock sessions for percussionist Pierre Moerlen and company – compositions that stressed jazz more than rock and which generally strayed away from lyrical content. This 1976 recording, also released under the title Expresso, was the band's first completely instrumental album, a companion piece to the later, somewhat warmer Expresso II, which is quite similar in sound and structure…

Gong are – and were – a completely indefinable and free-thinking outfit. They are still touring and touching minds, even after the death of founder Daevid Allen but this trilogy of albums was the best music that they ever produced…