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DAEVID ALLEN
banana moon
Disco LP 33 giri , 1980, oxford / ariston , OX/3178 , italia
CONDIZIONI ECCELLENTI, vinyl ex++/NM, cover ex++/NM, shrink although open
Daevid Allen (nome autentico: Christopher David Allen) (Melbourne, 13 gennaio 1938) è un poeta, cantante, compositore e chitarrista australiano. Allen è conosciuto soprattutto per il suo ruolo di fondatore del gruppo di rock psichedelico Soft Machine (in Gran Bretagna nel 1966) e del gruppo di rock spaziale Gong (in Francia nel 1970). Viene talvolta accreditato con il nome di Divided Alien. Vive attualmente a Byron Bay, in Australia.
Rimasto completamente senza un pound tra una fattanza e l' altra, Allen ricorrendo agli espedienti più elaborati e macchiavellici - un pò con l' autostop e un pò scarpinando - riesce a tornare in Inghilterra, dove nel febbraio 1971 ha modo di registrare l'album Banana Moon (BYG, 1971), accreditato al solo Daevid Allen invece che ai Gong. La formazione comprende Robert Wyatt, Gary Wright, Maggie Bell e altri musicisti inglesi. Gran parte dei brani non sono firmati da Allen, e sono ancora dei calderoni piu` o meno improvvisati di idee bizzarre, ma il piu` lungo, un poema surrealista alla Frank Zappa di 15 minuti, Stoned-Innocent Frankenstein And His Adventures In The Land Of Flip, non lascia dubbi sul genio del musicista.
This is Allen's first solo album which he recorded years after leaving the legendary Soft Machine and soon after forming the anarchic, experimental and drug-inspired ensemble Gong. The album's highlights include the moody 'Memories' with Robert Wyatt on vocals, one of the finest tracks to come out of the so-called 'Canterbury Sound', and the rocking opener 'Time Of Your Life' is a showcase for Allen's guitar pyrotechnics.
- Interprete: Daevid Allen
- Etichetta: Oxford / Ariston
- Catalogo: OX/3178
- Matrici : OX 3178 A / OX 3178 B
- Data di pubblicazione: 1980
- Supporto:vinile 33 giri
- Tipo audio: stereo
- Dimensioni: 30 cm.
- Facciate: 2
- Yellow/green label, white paper inner sleeve
Track listing
| A1 | It's The Time Of Your Life (3:21) | |
|
Bass, Guitar [Rhythm] -
Christian Tritsch
Drums - Pip Pyle |
||
| A2 | Memories (3:37) | |
| Guitar [Lead], Vocals - Robert Wyatt | ||
| A3 | All I Want Is Out Of Here (4:48) | |
| A4 | Fred The Fish And The Chip On His Shoulder (2:27) | |
| A5 | White Neck Blooze (4:36) | |
| A6 | Codein Coda (1:13) | |
| B1 | Stoned Innocent Frankenstein (3:26) | |
| B2 | And His Adventures In The Land Of Flip (11:56) | |
| B3 | I Am A Bowl (2:44) | |
| Trombone - Nick Evans | ||
Personnel
Bass - Archie LeggetChorus - Barry St. John , Maggie Bell
Drums - Robert Wyatt
Guitar [Lead], Vocals - Daevid Allen
Piano - Gary Wright
Producer - Jean Georgakarakos , Jean-Luc Young , Pierre Lattès
Violin - Gerry Fields
Vocals [Space Whisper] - Gilli Smyth
Banana Moon is a 1971 studio album by Daevid Allen. The album is sometimes refered to as Bananamoon and initial copies were pressed as a Gong album.
The band features Allen's former Soft Machine bandmate Robert Wyatt on drums, Gary Wright from Spooky Tooth, Maggie Bell from Stone the Crows, as well as Christian Tritsch and Pip Pyle from Gong. Some of the musicians on this album would subsequently contribute to Kevin Ayers' 1975 album Bananamour.
The track "Memories" was later covered by Material on their 1982 album One Down with a lead vocal by Whitney Houston. "Stoned Innocent Frankenstein" was re-recorded in 1978 by Allen in collaboration with Here and Now as Planet Gong on their Floating Anarchy Live 1977 album.
Initial pressings were credited to Gong and featured a Phil Franks photograph of Allen, Legget and Wyatt on a green cover. Subsequent pressings were in gatefold with a coloured circles/moon picture. The first UK pressing, in 1975 on Virgin Records subsidiary Carolin, had an alternative Daevid Allen drawn cover, featuring a peeled banana/moon playing a guitar.
This wacky, whimsical musical cartoon emerged several years after Daevid Allen left the legendary Soft Machine, and soon after he'd launched his classic hippie prog rock band Gong.
It was initially released on the French label Byg in 1971, and
re-released in England on the Virgin subsidiary Caroline in '75.
Joining Allen here is an all-star troupe that includes Robert Wyatt (Soft Machine and Matching Mole), Gary Wright (Spooky Tooth), Maggie Bell (Stone the Crows), and Gong members "Submarine Captain" Christian Tritsch, Pip Pyle, and Allen's girlfriend Gillie Smyth (aka "Shakti Yoni"). It's no surprise that the musical anarchy here resembles early Gong,
as opposed to the artist's later, more reflective solo recordings. With
a smile and wink, the irrepressible, mischievous Allen has the ability
to sound completely stoned yet totally likeable. He also shreds a few
guitar strings on the balls-out rocking "It's the Time of Your Life."
And the moody version of "Memories," sung here by Wyatt, is probably the best of at least a half-dozen floating around the Canterbury scene. Suffice to say, Banana Moon is quite weird, but it's also non-threatening and a great deal of fun. Also recommended and of a similar vein are Gong's Camembert Electrique, which is a bit more avant-garde, and Magick Brother, which is slightly more psychedelic.
BANANAMOON is a predominantly electric album. It seems to have been written and performed in a VERY
good mood, and its high spirits are infectious. The opening track, featuring out-of-control drumming by
Pip Pyle and ditto lead guitar by Allen himself (I think) sets the pace. The only truly melancholic moment
on the album is track No. 2: the definite performance of the lovely Soft Machine ballad 'Memories',
featuring Robert Wyatt on vocals and drums, sensitively accompanied by Daevid on rhythm guitar and by
Archie Legget on bass. Until BANANAMOON appeared, this song had never officially been released.
The album continues with the far out 'All I want is out of here', which sounds like a performance by Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street! Spirits are raised by the faux-Bluegrass of 'Fred the Fish', which has Daevid singing about packing his bags for Australia. This two-and-a-half minute track alone is worth the price of admission.
But even greater stuff is yet to follow, as the original A-side ends on a hilarious parody of a typical Kevin Ayers-type ballad. Daevid sings in the lowest register he can manage, and he's even borrowed two of Kevin's original backup singers. Fabulous. All that's lacking is one of those pristine Mike Oldfield guitar solos - but they would have prettified BANANAMOON too much.
In fact, this album's forte is that it sounds so spontaneous and so delightfully messy. Especially on its original B-side, which opens with yet another cheerful rock dittie, 'Stoned innocent Frankenstein', seguing into the all-out psychedelic/space-rock assault of 'And his Adventures in the land of Flip'. 'I'm a Bowl' forms a thoroughly Canterburian conclusion: childlike and whacky.
Nel 1960, ispirato dagli scrittori della Beat generation che ha scoperto lavorando ad una libreria di Melbourne, Allen viaggia alla volta di Parigi. Alloggia al Beat Hotel, in una stanza che ha visto come ospiti recenti Allen Ginsberg e Peter Orlovsky.
Mentre vende l'International Herald Tribune tra la rue du Chat-qui-Pêche (la via più stretta della capitale francese) e il Quartiere Latino, incontra Terry Riley, ottenendo così accesso libero ai jazz club della zona. Dopo aver fatto la conoscenza di William S. Burroughs ed essersi lasciato ispirare dalle filosofie di Sun Ra, mette in piedi il Daevid Allen Trio, formazione di free jazz. Mette, inoltre, in scena pièces di Burroughs tratte dal testo The ticket that exploded, nel teatro dello stesso Burroughs.
I Soft Machine
Allen decide, poi, di trasferirsi in Inghilterra, affittando una stanza a Canterbury, dove incontra il sedicenne Robert Wyatt, figlio dell'affittuario. Formano la band Soft Machine nel 1966, insieme a Kevin Ayers e Mike Ratledge. Ayers e Wyatt avevano già suonato insieme nei Wilde Flowers.
Dopo un tour in Europa, i quattro fanno ritorno in Inghilterra, ma ad Allen viene rifiutato l'ingresso: in una visita precedente, aveva abusato dei termini di scadenza del visto. Decide, dunque, di trasferirsi a Parigi dove, nel maggio del 1968, prende parte attiva alle proteste che travolgono la città, scagliando teddy bear contro la polizia e recitando poesie in francese pidgin, ammettendo in seguito di essere stato tacciato dai compagni di protesta di essere un beatnik.
La nascita dei Gong
In fuga dalla polizia, raggiunge Deià, sull'isola di Maiorca, con la compagna Gilli Smyth. È qui che incide il primo album accreditato ai Gong, Magick Brother (pubblicato nel 1969 dalla BYG Actuel). In una grotta sull'isola, incontrano il flautista Didier Malherbe, assicurando in seguito di averlo trovato a fare la vita dell'eremita in una grotta, nella tenuta di Robert Graves.
Nel 1971, i Gong firmano per la Virgin e pubblicano Camembert Electrique. I Gong si trasformano in breve in una sorta di comune anarchica nella campagna francese (1973-1974). Si unisce al gruppo Steve Hillage e, con questa formazione, incidono la celebre trilogia di Radio Gnome, che consiste di Flying Teapot, Angel's Egg e You.
La carriera solista
Allen si trova man mano sempre più estraneo al gruppo e avvia una carriera solista che lo porterà ad incidere due album: Good Morning e Now Is The Happiest Time Of Your Life. Nel 1977, si esibisce e incide in una formazione chiamata Planet Gong e si riunisce alla versione classica del gruppo per una reunion all'Hippodrome di Parigi. Parti di questo concerto (lungo diverse ore) sono state pubblicate nel doppio LP Gong Est Mort? Vive Gong.
Nel 1980, Allen mette in piedi il gruppo di ispirazione punk New York Gong, insieme a Bill Laswell. Tale sforzo porta alla pubblicazione dell'LP About Time. Diversi altri porgetti prendono corpo, inclusi la Invisible Opera Company Of Tibet, Brainville, Ex (da non confondere con la band punk olandese The Ex) e i Magic Brothers.
Nel 1980, Allen ritorna in Australia, precisamente a Byron Bay, dove lavora a performance di recitazione e poesia. Insieme a David Tolley porta avanti progetti a base di tape loops e drum machine. Insieme al figlio Orlando collabora al progetto you’N’gong (un gioco di parole basato su Young Gong, "Giovane Gong"): con loro membri degli Acid Mothers Temple (tutti insieme suonano con il nome di Acid Mothers Gong). Oltre a ciò, Allen lavora anche ad un progetto di musica d'improvvisazione chiamato Guru And Zero.
Nel novembre del 2006, è stata organizzata ad Amsterdam una convention dedicata ai fan dei vecchi Gong, con una reunion di molti dei Gong fondatori del classico line-up degli anni settanta.
The story of GONG begins (again), full moon Easter 1966. Daevid Allen had a vision which was to change his, and many other people's lives.
He gained the impression that he was an experiment being supervised by intelligences far beyond his normal level of awareness that he was later to call the octave doctors seeing himself on stage in front of a large rock festival audience and experiencing an intense connection with them that had the quality of intense LOVE, at the same time being surrounded by an enormous cone of etheric light... simultaneously drawing astral shadows from deep below us and dissolving them in the downpouring radiance focused at its peak."
This vision spawned the entire mythology around which the band was based. The concept of playing anything as remotely fashionable as pop music was a radical step for ALLEN - He says he would never have considered playing pop songs if he had not heard the YARDBIRDS, still i'm sad.
ALLEN: "for a time i forgot about this revelation, but before long, the act of offering myself to the powers that combine, energise and transform all that lives through music became my only reason to exist. at this point I became aware of my life purpose
Daevid's first attempt to manifest this vision resulted in the formation of soft machine in october 1966. In retrospect he felt that the band lacked the spiritual integrity that Allen was looking for, but it did provide the circumstances for his first performances with Gilli Smyth as the 'electric poets'. His involvement with the project came to an abrupt end in august 1967, when he was refused entry back into the UK due to his visa having expired.
Daevid spent the next couple of months in Paris experimenting with his electric guitar and a boxful of nineteenth century gynaecological surgical instruments processed through an echo box and other effects. Daevid claims to have been inspired by watching Syd BARRETT playing with Pink Floyd at the Ally Pally
Whilst playing around the left bank cafe scene, Daevid and Gilli met up with magic brothers and mystic sisters; Elson, Taner, Ziska and Natch.
The six of them obtained a residency at La Vielle Grille and began to realise the concept of TOTAL SPACE MUSIC together with Daevid's glissando guitar, Gilli and Ziska on Space Whisper (a.k.a. atlantean temple chant), Elson and Natch on flutes and Taner mixing it all through his pride and joy, a state of the art 6 channel semprini echo chamber, becoming the very first in a sacred lineage of switch doctors. Daevid described the whole experience as "eight of the maddest musicians imaginable....improvising around nothing for hours on end, completely stoned."
During this time Daevid was introduced to a young filmmaker named Jérôme Laperrousaz and a young bassist and drummer, Marc Blanc and Patrice Lafontaine, plunging straight into the student riots in Paris, may '68 with an ORTF camera crew. Their performance was stopped by the police, the trio had been photographed and a warrant signed for their arrest, so Daevid and Gilli split for Deya just in time to avoid being busted by the police who considered them to be insurgents.
They returned to Deya, narrowly avoiding expulsion from Spain due to a provocative interview Gilli had unwittingly done with the Barcelona tabloids.
Once the heat had died down a bit they smuggled themselves back into France with the intention of fulfilling commitments with Living Theatre and the Bananamoon Band. Whilst in Avignon they met up with a cheery Parisien flea market dealer called Bob Benamou, who had invited Gilli to stay at his house, in the grounds of which was Dr. Mishra's Ashram/ Retreat run by one Brahmananada - (a.k.a. Bananana Ananda) an old friend from Paris days.
Daevid and Gilli spent the rest of '68 in Deya working on the material that was to become Magic Brother / Mystic Sister, there they met Didier MALHERBE who was living in a goatherders cave on the side of a mountain in Robert GRAVES' back garden. They staged poetry readings in a miniature reproduction amphitheatre next door involving local poets and musicians. They returned briefly to Paris to record demos for Pathe Marconi and Barclay with the Bananamoon Band - these have eventually surfaced as Je ne fum pas des Banananes - they turned down the original deals they were offered on the grounds that the deals were too old fashioned.
Daevid's father Wally gave him enough money to buy the old millhouse on Bob Benamou's land in the south of France, which they moved into and began work restoring. One of their visitors that summer was swashbuckling entrepreneur Jean KARAKOS, who has started an anti-music-biz record company called BYG. He advanced the money to record Magic Brother... and Bananana Moon before hearing a single note or signing any contract...
At this point Daevid reconnected with the original vision that had
spurred him on, he realised that he was "one of the many human, and
thus flawed, instruments creating a cultural and spiritual
revolution... It was very clear to me that laughter was a vital
ingredient and could be used as camouflage, absurdity was the ideal
shield."
by july '68 a three year contract had been signed for Magic Brother... and Bananana Moon and subsequently with GONG for Camembert electrique. Allen wasted no time in pulling together a team of virtuoso musicians to form the first proper Gong band in Paris and began recording in september.
Karakos, along with BYG records and Actuel Magazine set up the Amougies Jazz festival where gong played their first gig on october 27th. Billed as the first ever French festival, it was actually held ten miles across the border not far from the site of the historical battle of Waterloo, due to pressure from the French Police, still nervous from the previous years riots.
Magic Brother... became pop album of the week on French Radio. Gong spent two months gigging hard around Paris.
Laperrousaz gave them free use of his haunted Normandy Chateau (Château du Thiel) - built oddly enough by the inventor of the curling tongs! - where gong lived, wrote and rehearsed music for films such as "Je, tu, elle", TV ads,Es que je suis.../ Hyp hyp hypnotise ya, it's the time of your life and even the theme tune for the ORTF news!.
Benamou officially becomes gong's manager and the band move back to
Montalieu in July. Despite the successes of the band - receiving radio
play on programmes like the French 'pop2' - Houari left the band -
Allen: "in the end he was playing quieter and quieter until one day he
just wasn't there anymore."
Technically Daevid still owes Karakos two solo albums, Karakos had wanted at least one ex- Soft Machine to be involved and, as it happened, Robert Wyatt was around. After several cases of Fosters lager and loads of black hash they decide to book Marquee studios in London and cut Bananamoon
Daevid was introduced to a young sound engineer Tim BLAKE at the time and invited him back to France to act as the band's sound mixer
March sees a move to a hunting Lodge in Voisines and Pip PYLE joins in april, thus the scene was set to begin recordings at herouville castle in may for Camembert Electrique, Dashielle Hedayatt's Obsolete and Continental circus the latter being a film by jérôme Laperrousaz about ex world motorcycle champion Bruce FINDLAY. The debut gig for this more muscular line-up was at Glastonbury festival in the UK. Bananamoon is released in July and Kevin AYERS joins in august as a semi-permanent member. They set off on a UK tour, Pip leaves after French dates in December and goes back to England.
Laurie ALLAN joins on drums in jan '72 and does Belgian dates and UK tour, after which AYERS decides that he really can't hack the lifestyle and goes back to his more relaxed solo career. Laurie ALLEN refused ever to play the same song twice and left as soon as he knew what was coming next...
Drummers came and went, in august the band split for a while, Gilli had just given birth to her first son, Taliesin ALLEN and needed time off from the busy schedule of gigging and recording. Bob Benamou and Jaques Fivel return to the antiques business and Karakos had more or less disappeared off the scene, having run into trouble with his label BYG and forced to go under ground.
Georgio GOMELSKY persuaded ALLEN, SMYTH and MALHERBE to return to Britain and talk to Richard BRANSON who had taken an interest in them on the basis of their Glastonbury Festival performance, so the band shack up with VIRGIN despite still being technically signed to BYG - the start of years of legal wrangling and unreceived royalties...
GONG was having problems settling on a permanent rhythm section. Christian TRITSCH wanted to move off bass and concentrate on lead guitar and vocals - they audition several bass players including Bill MacCORMICK (ex - matching mole) but finally plumb for Francis MOZE from MAGMA. With Laurie ALLAN back on the drum stool this band perform a three week tour of France before picking up Kevin Ayers' Guitarist Steve HILLAGE and inviting Tim BLAKE back as a full-time member.
in Jan '73 the band travel to England to record Flying Teapot at Virgin's Manor Studios in Oxfordshire. The sessions are allegedly tumultuous due in part to Moze clashing with everyone except ALLEN and HILLAGE. After one too many disagreements, ALLEN calls it a day and splits back to France. Plans are made for the band to continue without him as PARAGONG. Daevid seeks commitment from Virgin in the form of a new contract and agency deal.
Daevid and Gilli temporarily leave gong and return to Deya to spend time as a family. PARAGONG tour France in april with new bassplayer Mike HOWLETT and drummer Pierre MOERLEN
Daevid returns with a renewed sense of purpose, Gong play in London, watched by Richard Branson and Mike OLDFIELD, who spots MOERLEN and asks him to play at the premier of Tubular Bells at the Queen Elisabeth Hall the following month. Flying Teapotis released and the first BBC 'Top Gear' session is recorded. The first major UK tour with this - the classic line-up was undertaken in june and work immediately began on Ooby scooby Doomsday at Manor Studios in Oxfordshire. In july they moved back to France and began sessions for Angel's Egg at Pavillion du Hay in Voisines.
Gilli gives birth to Orlando ALLEN and the second peel session is recorded in january.
GONG move to middlefield farm near oxford UK and are almost immediately busted for dope. Pierre rejoins in may and they begin rehearsing for You
Daevid Allen: "The creation of You was very different to angel's egg, we had come to the conclusion that, because i was contributing a lot of the material, that it was too much my original creation. It was time we created something completely together, so we booked up a cottage in England, and we lived there for a week, we saved up some wonderful acid and we took this acid together as a group. And this was one occasion where there was no paranoia, it was just a wonderful, wonderful trip and we all played and played and played. And we connected so strongly together out of the improvisations, we just improvised and recorded it and then at the end of the day, we would listen to the recordings and take the pieces out that we wanted to learn."
Daevid wrote the lyrics over the next month and recording began in july. "You was the final record (of the trilogy) and so i had to write the words and make that story come into its final cycle."
Pierre leaves to become a full time member of the prestigious Percussions de Strasbourg as a full-time member, the band became split over various personal, spiritual and musical issues. Daevid wanted to leave the band, finding the music too technique oriented, other members objected to having to fit their music to his perpetual storyline and took issue with his choice of ending for the trilogy. Record company businessmen wanted them to be more commercial and play down the political subversion. There was also heated disagreement about the wisdom of continuing to use drugs as part of the band experience.
Gilli leaves for Spain and is replaced by Miquette GIRAUDY, Steve HILLAGE's girlfriend, previously an actress, who'd appeared in Barbet Schroeder's film La Vallée.
Laurie ALLAN returns for the UK tour, he is busted for drugs whilst crossing the Franco-German border and was forbidden ever to enter France again. He was replaced by Bill BRUFORD for the remainder of the dates in Germany, Holland and Norway.
Youis released in November, but as the album rises in the UK charts, Karakos reappears and slams an injunction on the album claiming that GONG were still signed to BYG. A twelve year legal battle between Virgin and BYG ensues, resulting in all GONG's royalties going to the lawyers.
Daevid finally leaves the band during a gig at Cheltenham: "I couldn't actually get on stage. It was as though there was a an invisible curtain of force that was stopping me from going through the door. I threw myself at the open door and bounced back, off nothing. And this blew my mind so thoroughly that i just ran out of the theatre into the rain and started hitch hiking on the road with all my clothes, my stage clothes, my costume and face painted with fluorescent colours. And then a woman looked at me so strangely that i started thinking i was a murderer and i was hiding in the bushes. Finally i got picked up by somebody who had left the concert and was taken home, and then i had to realise that i had to leave gong, so that's the way it all ended."
Gong completes the tour with Steve and Miquette fronting a truncated line-up
Pierre returns after Virgin offer him the leadership of the band, recording Shamal in december,Steve HILLAGE guests on a couple of tracks only and leaves the band for good to concentrate on his solo career
The band split again into lyrical vs. instrumental camps. Simon Draper of Virgin chooses the Moerlen driven instrumental approach,Patrice LEMOINE and Mike HOWLETTleave. Gazeuze!is recorded in september, but the band splits irrevocably afterwards.
The original purpose of the band had vanished, but they still had a contract to complete with virgin under the name GONG. Pierre had met up with Hansford ROWE in New York, in november. They decide to form a new GONG line-up - the prototype of Pierre Moerlen's GONG
Gong
Psychedelic, electro jazz crossover, anarcho-pataphysical hippy idealist revolutionary nursery-rhyme, goddess mantra-trance delirium
"Whatever Gong may mean to you, it's well possible that it means the very opposite to someone else."
"I was in the position of being a psychedelic usher at the cinema of the French mind."
- Daevid Allen
No other band has such immediate word association with 'hippies' as Gong, the psychedelic vision of Australian beatnik Daevid Allen. Gong emerged in the full flood of psychedelia, appearing on stagein 'pothead pixie' hats, and committing to vinyl a space-jazz soundtrack for getting stoned to - a notion that informed many of their songs, along with a breezy eroticism and sub-Tolkien allegory. Strangely enough, twenty years on, the old albums stand up surprisingly well, especially by comparison with the output of their more earnest mates in the era's progressive-rock scene.
The story of Gong centres around those of Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth, Allen has been involved with performance his entire life. He pioneered 'Beat Poetry' and 'Poetry and Jazz' in Melbourne, Australia in the late fifties. He helped introduce 'Performance Poetry' and 'Free' Jazz to London in the early-sixties, and had by 1966 fallen in with the Canterbury scene in England, lending his guitar and poetry bohemianism to the embryonic Soft Machine. Within a year, however, and after just one single with the Softs, Allen left the band, having been refused re-entry into England after a French tour. He then settled in Paris, where he set up a proto-version of Gong, recalled as 'a large number of musicians and singers improvising around nothing for hours on end, completely stoned'.
Poetess Gilli Smyth has been hailed as a pioneer in the struggle to achieve gender equality, and her voice in early Gong started to be heard at a time when, apart from other pioneers and freethinkers, this shattered conventions and was considered pretty radical. They shared similar spiritual visions of the purpose of what they were doing, a passion for poetry, an absurdist sense of humour and a desire to push back the barriers in life and art.
Gong developed in the highly charged atmosphere of Paris in the late sixties. Shaped and influenced by a mixture of the political and philosophical theories of "anarchy", Eastern, Arabic and Jazz music, ritual theatre, mime, beat poetry, tape loop experimentation, the Goon show and more. They developed a unique style of avant-garde psychedelic mantric music and created, in the Planet Gong, an entire world where all the social norms and institutions were turned topsy turvy and absurdity held sway. Gong's success abroad led to them becoming one of the first signings to Richard Branson's Virgin label.
An early influence was Terry Riley - today a respected systems/minimalist composer but then beginning his experiments with tape loops - whom Allen met, inspiring his technique of 'glissando guitar' and the tape textures that gave a base to Gong's pioneering 'stratified' rock. This was in evidence right from the band's first recording, a film soundtrack entitled Continental Circus (released in 1970), which Allen and Smyth had worked on around the time of the Paris 1968 uprising. Branded 'cultural agitators' by the authorities, they had left France in a hurry, and were not allowed to return until 1971...
During this period, Allen and Smyth released two albums on the French Byg label: Magick Brother, Mystic Sister (1970) and Banana Moon (1971). Although the latter was credited to Allen alone, all the Gong ingredients were in place - whimsical surrealism ("Fred The Fish"), sexual fantasy ("Pretty Miss Titty"), and, of course, drugs ("Stoned Innocent Frankenstein") - while the music spiralled out from the old Soft Machine imprint...
Over the years Gong has been the formative home to a large number of
high calibre international musicians, the alchemical crucible for a
widely diverse range of musical styles, an influence on hundreds of
bands and consistently odd. Each new musician in the ever changing Gong
saga has joined already passionately steeped in a different musical or
artistic tradition Be-Bop, Classical and Indian music, pure
pychedelia, performance poetry, esoteric sufi music theory, modern
atonal classical percussion, end of the pier music-hall, ambient music
(before the term had been coined).....and even Atlantean Temple dance
all played a part in forming the unique Gong sound But inspired
empassioned individuals alone do not make a band. Something less
tangible has always made the eclectic mixture gel.
With the range of influences they had and in an era of lumbering blues and R'n'B driven 'rock' experimentation Gong were always destined to be outsiders, aliens to the current trends. Spanning an epoch that championed self expression and individuality on a large scale for the first time Gong took that ethos to the edge. At the same time they attempted to by-pass the usual ego-bloating adulation 'rock stars' habitually suffer from by embracing a communal lifestyle, crazy pseudonyms for their performances and relating to their audience, both on and off the stage, in a totally human way. Their communal home was consistently overflowing with passing friends and fans. They epitomised joyful celebration of the individual while honouring their connectedness to the whole...
They were attempting no less than spiritual regeneration through popular music. Their chosen struggle was fascinating and inspirational to their audience and when it did come together musically it was, well... transcendental. Each performance was approached as a ritual. They believed as musicians theirs was a sacred task - the construction of the 'Nuclear Mystery Temple' which could be percussioneived in the ethers around the band and audience by those with the clairvoyance to see. The Nuclear Mystery Temple provided a conduit by which a connection could be made, via music, between Gong, its audience and universal consciousness. Most importantly of all, this process was never po-faced or dogmatic, it is always conducted with a lightness of spirit, humour is always a vital element...
When Allen and Smyth returned to France in 1971, they fermented Gong's first stable line-up from a rural farmhouse commune, depicted on the album sleeve of Camembert Electrique (1971). Recorded 'during the full moon phases' of that summer, this began both Allen's obsessively wacky wordplay with the names of his musicians, and the idea of Gong as a planet. Gilli Smyth (space whisper) became Shakti Yoni; Didier Malherbe (saxophone, flute) transmuted into Bloomdido Bad De Grasse; and one Venux De-Luxe emerged as switch doctor and mix master; the line-up was completed by Pip Pyle (drums and breakage). The album itself was an abandoned piece of space-funkery, too stoned for its own good at times, but zesty enough to attract the attentions of the embryonic Virgin Records, who signed the band and, echoing their promotional trick with The Faust Tapes, re-released the album as a 69p bargain buy.
Encouraged by Virgin, Allen moved Gong to a new rural commune, back in England, so as to more easily use the company's production facilities. Thus endowed, the band launched into a shamelessly psychotropic triptych of albums, Flying Teapot and Angels Egg (both 1973) and You (1974) - playing out a melodrama of spiritual and musical mythology from the Planet Gong. These wonderfully trippy albums offered a sequence of songs and uplifting proto-ambient layers of electronics well ahead of their time. A major component was the meshing of now integral members Steve Hillage and Tim Blake, whose respective guitar and synthesizer provided a serenely mantric backdrop for Malherbe's eclectic saxophone patterns and delayed flute codas. The rhythms were tight, too, with Mike Howlett (bass) and Pierre Moerlen (drums) giving Allen and Smyth's ethereal poetry its tightest structure ever. Live, the band were even better, an astonishing spectacle utilizing lasers (their first appearance in rock), and dressed and lit like a mummer's play. Allen described the band live as like a 'more feminine version of Hawkwind'...
Unfortunately for this extended family of utopian dreamers and deviants (from Angel's Egg, the cast included Hillage's partner, keyboard player Miquette Giraudy), the times were about to change .... big time. In 1973 Virgin could indulge its hippie hangover of iconoclasm and obscurantism, funded by the soaraway success of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells. But Allen never became 'the Beefheartian cult figure' of Virgin's press release imaginings, and as the decade progressed, punk would brand Gong with the same prog-rock brush as Genesis, ELP et al...
More than thirty albums have been released under the Gong banner over
the years. Perhaps the most well known works are 'Camembert Electrique'
and the famous mystical 'Gong Trilogy'-'Flying Teapot', 'Angel's Egg'
and' You'-adventures in poetry and song of Zero the Hero and the pot-head pixies from the Planet Gong, travelling to Earth in flying teapots.
The trilogy albums displayed a bardic sensibility. They were
archetypical creation myths and truths garbed for a free-thinking,
questioning generation, tales of Octave Doctors, the Good Witch Yoni,
secret coded messages from deepest outer/inner space and the levels of
initiation on the soul's cyclical journey of reincarnation. It was
often too much of a challenge for those of a purely pragmatic outlook
and seen as being too far from the 'norm'. But there were enough people
in tune with Gong's particular call to make this series of albums
successful through the early and mid 70's and the band established a
huge audience in Britain and on the continent.
Success and monetary reward as always is a two-edged sword and it was Gong's new found popularity that was one of the elements that led to the demise of the most popular band line-up in 1975. Over the years several unscrupulous record companies have taken advantage of Gong's utopian idealism to short change them on a grand scale. But the sacrifice of royalties for liberty has never been an obstacle that could ever interfere for long with Gong's higher purpose...
The paths that individual members have taken after leaving Gong has been as wide as the influences that Gong embraced. Either as successful solo performers, as Daevid Allen or synth player Tim Blake, in the context of new bands like Gilli Smyth with Mother Gong or Steve Hillage and his various projects such as System 7, or as in demand session musicians or producers like Didier Malherbe and Mike Howlett, the Gong vibration has been widely spread...
"The original Gong band like a magic mushroom that had grown too large, spawned a series of mushrooms and when it blew apart in the wind all it's members went off to develop their own particular vision." - Gilli Smyth.
Allen and Smyth, however, pre-empted it all, jumping ship for Spain in
1975 - Allen maintaining he had been prevented from appearing on stage
one night by a 'force field' of unspecified origin. Gong sailed on for
a while, with Hillage and Giraudy leading the line for Shamal (1975),
produced by Pink Floyd's Nick Mason, before finally docking into dry
jazz-rock terrain as Pierre Moerlen's Gong, with Moerlen and Malherbe
alone remaining from previous incarnations. Their albums,
Gazeuse/Expresso and Expresso II (1977/1978) were Gong product in name
alone.
The Gong spirit was kept alive more by Steve Hillage, whose solo albums, all spaced-out guitar and New Age lyrics, Virgin marketed successfully alongside the Sex Pistols, though it was to cost him a solid decade in the shadows of a new subculture's mass derision. Oddly, Allen and Smyth returned to England much more in key with the times, re-forming as Planet Gong with musicians from a punk-hippie hybrid of souls known as Here & Now. They hurled their forty-something bodies into a free concert tour of Britain, the Live Floating Anarchy tour, along with thinking-punks Alternative TV. The music (commemorated by a live disc) was a mix of punk and hippie-psychedelia, corroded into a howl of urban squat polemic ("Opium For The People"), and going a little lighter on the space whisper...
Tim Blake recorded two seminal synth LPs, 'New Jerusalem' (Barclay) and 'Crystal Machine' (Egg). Blake (who has the distinction of being the only musician sacked by Gong) briefly joined Hawkwind (in a bizarre line-up that also included Ginger Baker), before basing himself in France and recording and performing as Crystal Machine - a synthesizer/laser/lightshow acid head's dream. Drummer Pierre Moerlen formed 'Pierre Moerlen's Gong' who had great success through a series of albums and tours especially on the continent, albeit with a purer jazz-rock sound. Daevid released two successful solo albums, 'Good Morning' (Virgin) and 'Now is the Happiest Time of Your Life' (Affinity). Allen moved to New York around 1978, made a few solo albums, and instigated a New York Gong project with Bill Laswell, before returning to Australia, where he wound up driving taxis. This period is well documented on the recordings, 'New York Gong' (Charly) and 'Playbax 80' (Charly) . Meanwhile Gilli Smyth continued to question the accepted gender roles and celebrate the higher connectedness between the sexes with her solo album 'Mother'(Charly) and with the band Mother Gong, work which she has continued into the '90s with 'Glo' (Gas), an ambient/trance dance CD produced in collaboration with Steffy Sharpstrings...
Hillage and Howlett operated as Virgin's in-house producers (Simple Minds, Martha and The Muffins, among others), before the former returned to the limelight with The Orb and his own System 7...
In 1988 Allen returned to England, settling (of course) in Glastonbury.
He was a largely forgotten figure, but Gong material was beginning to
be sampled on Acid House underground hits, and he reclaimed sufficient
momentum to get a band together again, touring in 1992 as Gongmaison,
with Malherbe back on reeds, and with tabla percussion and techno-
esque electronics reflecting how many of the original musical tenets of
golden period Gong had come back into play. As if to prove it, Allen
went on to record with Bongwater and Shimmy Disc mainman Kramer for
1993's Who's Afraid album.
An acoustic trio, The Magick Brothers, was formed, Gilli Smyth came over from Australia to tour with Mother Gong and a series of albums resulted, among them Daevid's 'Australia Aquaria' (Demi Monde) and Mother Gong's 'Eye' (Voiceprint). When 'Camembert Electrique' drummer Pip Pyle re-joined the band, the Gong moniker was adopted once more in 1992. A series of successful tours of the UK and Europe followed and the first new Gong album for nearly 15 years, 'Shapeshifter' (Celluloid), was recorded and released to critical acclaim...
In October 1994, Allen hosted a 25th birthday party for Gong at London's Forum, headlining a bill featuring a host of permutations and spin-offs that had continued through the years. It was a testament also to the Gong Appreciation Society (GAS), which has been assiduously re-issuing much of the extended Gong catalogue, along with re-issues specialist, Voiceprint, as well as publishing Allen's five-volume Gong archive-autobiography...
In 1996, the rising tide of interest in all things Gong continued, as they toured Japan, Europe and the USA, selling out venues as a new generation of fans joined the ranks of the converted to pay homage to these ever-changing psychedelic pioneers. This surge of enthusiasm was underlined by the release of You Remixed (1997) one of Gong's classic albums, remixed by The Orb, Graham Massey of 808 State, Total Eclipse and The Shamen among many others, Gong fans to a person, whose own musical work has been deeply influenced by the luminous green planet Gong...
Gong continues to re-invent itself, never cashing in on past patterns by repeating well worn bankable formulas as often demanded by the music business. It is still acting as a cutting edge, often far enough ahead of it's time not to be recognised. Each variation of the band has brought revitalisation and new interpretation to the very special sound and soul call that is the Gong vibration...
"It's all much too serious to be serious about" - Daevid Allen
Come cantar uno yodel al supermercato. Un'introduzione a Daevid Allen
A
Melbourne lo si sapeva studente d’arte, poi estroso poeta, quindi
attore teatrale. Ma nel ’62, dopo svariate peregrinazioni europee,
Daevid Allen optò per Canterbury e, senza nessun progetto ben definito,
indusse il giovane batterista Robert Wyatt ed il chitarrista Kevin Ayers a lasciare il loro gruppo di r’n’b, i Wild Flowers, per tentare qualcosa di più azzardato.
Di lì ebbe inizio una delle carriere più significative che la musica
pop-rock abbia mai potuto vantare. Affittata una stanza nella casa dei
genitori di Wyatt il nostro introdusse gli ex-‘Fiori Selvaggi’ alle
gioie psichedeliche e al free-jazz. Fu allora che nacquero i Soft Machine (nome rubato da un romanzo del solito William S. Burroughs). Con i Soft egli si esibiva sovente presso lo storico locale londinese UFO (tracce alleniane nella raccolta demo della ‘Macchina Morbida’ Jet Propelled Photographs), dividendo il palco con i Pink Floyd di Syd Barrett e ponendo le coordinate stilistiche per quel Canterbury sound
che tanto influenzò il miglior rock progressivo negli anni a venire.
Poi nel ’67, causa un permesso di soggiorno scaduto, Daevid è costretto
ad archiviare l’esperienza a fianco dei compagni e decide di
trasferirsi in Francia con la moglie (poetessa e giornalista) Gill Smith.. Qui, nella Parigi delle insurrezioni studentesche, nacque Magick Brother Mystick Sister, primo album attribuito ai Gong.
Durante tutta la travagliata vicenda coi Gong si alterneranno decine di
musicisti di grande levatura come Pip Pyle (poi Hatfield & the North)
Pierre Moerlen e Steve Hillage ma l’impronta che fa la differenza, beh
quella è da rintracciarsi in Daevid che con le sue liriche in bilico
tra il puro dadaismo (per essere precisi è giusto scomodare la
"Patafisica" di Alfred Jarry) e la fiaba ‘sballata’
da vita a una saga vera e propria che parla di alieni, folletti e di
navi spaziali a forma di teiera. Per i più curiosi va detto che nel
sito ufficiale dei Gong è possibile scaricare le traduzioni in italiano
di album storici come Camembert electrique (’71) e Flying Teapot (’73) che, con Angel egg’s e You (’74),
costituiscono le tappe fondamentali del vicenda riguardante il pianeta
Gong. Svilito dall’approccio sempre più tecnicista e meno spontaneo
emerso nelle ultime esibizioni Allen, con estrema coerenza, abbandona
il gruppo per tornare al suo vagabondaggio. Dopo You la band procederà senza il suo fondatore dando origine a lavori trascurabili e ‘di maniera’.
Poi una gran confusione di date, eventi, partecipazioni, ritiri subito dopo smentiti si accavallano contro la figura del nostro; è però doveroso estrarre da questo caos (inestricabile anche per il fan più accanito) l’LP acustico Now is the happiest time of your life zeppo di cantilene infantili e non-sense, il live del ’77 Floating Anarchy a nome Planet Gong e, dopo la separazione con Gill, i lavori della parentesi newyorkese. Si tratta in questo caso di registrazioni live ove la scarsa qualità sonora è sopperita da un ispirazione creativa ai massimi livelli, tanto che il nostro appare perfettamente in linea con le nuove tendenze della scena off no-wave. E poi, nei ’90, a Daevid avanza il tempo per la reunion in grande stile dei Gong ‘prima maniera’ (o quasi) e da lì via nuovamente per San Francisco dove verranno concepiti gli album in bilico tra kraut-rock e psichedelica spaziale a nome University of Errors… insomma, impossibile non tralasciare qualcosa. Il fatto è che verrebbe da soffermarsi su molti altri episodi topici della vita artistica e umana del nostro. Sarebbe un peccato tralasciare per esempio il primo album solista (’71) a titolo Banana moon nel quale Allen, recuperato permesso di soggiorno e un ispiratissimo Wyatt alla batteria, da vita a una jam-session straordinariamente efficace. Poi ci sono i 20 cd a tiratura limitata in 1000 copie della serie Obscura che raccolgono rare esibizioni live intrise di umorismo, reading, musica ambient e ogni possibile digressione sperimentale applicata al formato pop.
Daevid Allen è un godibile mistero. Teorizzatore del movimento Freak, anticipatore di un surreale prog-rock, sorprendente alfiere di impro elettroniche e poi ancora disegnatore per diletto, scrittore, seguace dell’oscura Mistery School per la quale organizzò pure dei workshops intitolati Zero Initiation: da più di 40 anni resta raro esempio di un estro creativo eclettico e dirompente. Si ascolti a questo proposito l’album del 2003 Acidmotherhood a nome Gong (ma la line-up comprende pure il leader dei giapponesi Acid Mothers Temple): pezzi come Brainwash Me o Supercotton risultano apolidi ad ogni definizione ed estremamente attuali al contempo.
La vita di questo freak dal viso di bambino (nonostante i lunghi capelli bianchi che cadono su una figura alta e scheletrica) è in realtà l’intricata sequenza di tanti e tali fatti che non basterebbe un enciclopedia per comprenderli tutti. Si dice abbia suonato piano-bar con Terry Riley, che abbia vissuto in una foresta dentro ad una capanna soffittata con foglie di Banano, che abbia composto musiche per il già citato Burroughs. Pare non vi sia nulla che gli sia rimasto da provare tanto è sempre stata inappagabile la sua smania di tuffarsi in ogni affare della vita. Allen rappresenta una figura di outsider sincera e assolutamente valida; i suoi spettacoli lo vedono calzare copricapo a forma di ombrello senza che ti venga da pensare alla trovata maliziosa di chi vuole catturarti a suon di stramberie. Egli è sempre stato ciò che è e quest’intervista ne è la riprova. Conscio del fatto che parte dei flusso di coscienza riversato nelle sue risposte non avrebbe trovato un esatta corrispondenza nella lingua italiana mi augurò, immagino con un sorriso tra il divertito ed il luciferin0 “Buona fortuna per la traduzione!”. Allen dunque non si aspetta la pedissequa riproposizione delle sue parole in un'altra lingua. Pretende uno sforzo, tanto dal sottoscritto che dal fruitore della sua musica, come a dire “ho cantato un pianeta fantastico, l’ho popolato di alcuni sparuti personaggi ma, perché il gioco sia davvero divertente, tocca a voi lo sforzo maggiore”. E lo sforzo più grande è proprio questo: ascoltare attivamente prima che ciò che ascoltiamo ci abbia rivelato tutti i suoi trucchi.
Intervista
Daevid, parliamo della tua musica: c’è più Gioco o più Sacralità?
Il gioco risponde ad un codice. ‘Gioco’ equivale a ‘divertimento’. ‘Gioco’ è pure un nascondiglio ben accessibile a tutti. ‘Gioco’ è una formula magica che schiude una porta. Così facendo, fortunatamente, non veniamo compresi se non da una cerchia ristretta di persone. E cos’è la ‘sacralità’? È osservare e pregare, è attesa attraverso un amore che ci eleva; ‘sacralità’ significa lacrime di gioia ma anche improvvise e terribili dipartite. Chi siamo, mi chiedo? Chi sono veramente? È sempre una sorpresa… o no? La mia musica è un altalena; l’energia provocata da un pendolo oscillante: ora tende verso l’oscurità, ora verso la luce. Quando cambierà la marea stavolta, puoi dirlo con certezza? Noi uomini poi… siiiì… facciamo le ‘donnestruazioni’ (‘womenstruation’, gioco di parole di stampo surrealista tra women [donne] e menstruation [mestruazione], n.d.a.) …Oh, la Luna!!!
Come definiresti il movimento psichedelico ad un ragazzo al suo primo approccio con la musica?
Immergendolo nell’acido e suonandogli la musica del momento.
Quindi il tuo concetto di psichedelia…
…fai conto di vedere una ragazza bella e innocente che, a causa dell’acido, rimane ‘sconvolta’ per tutta la vita. Riesci a immaginare che tipo di karma si svilupperebbe in quella condizione?
Progetti futuri.
E dove se ne è andato il futuro? Magari non è mai arrivato. Non ho proprio futuro.
Quale pensi sia il maggior merito dell’Arte?
Essa è iniziazione. Morte e successiva trasformazione. Ogni giorno ti mette davanti a delle situazioni impossibili. È cambiamento continuo.
Hai mai abbracciato un’ideologia che ti ha poi deluso?
Il cristianesimo e tutte le religioni tradizionali in genere. L’arte fine a sé stessa. Il futurismo. Il nichilismo. Il motociclismo. Gli esistenzialisti. I comunisti. La cucina macrobiotica. Lo stile di vita proposto dalle comunità hippy. L’anarchia. L’edonismo. La rivoluzione studentesca. La ricerca della conoscenza attraverso l’alchimia delle droghe. I diritti dei gay. La magia nera. L’attivismo ambientalista. E pure lo scetticismo. La ricerca dell’Illuminazione. La spiritualità new age. La teosofia. Il sufismo. Il noise e la no-age. La tribalità di certi raduni a suon di trance-music. Il sesso tantrico. La celebrità. Il terrorismo. ‘L’errorismo’. I corporativi che ti sponsorizzano. La ricerca dell’eterna giovinezza. La medicina tradizionale. L’alcolismo di matrice romantica. La democrazia compassionevole. Anche il fatto di dover essere un vecchio saggio mi ha stancato.
C’è qualcosa che non hai mai avuto il coraggio di provare?
Non ho mai cucinato e mangiato il mio ppene.
Secondo te esiste una musica veramente pericolosa?
Certo.
Fammi un esempio.
Te ne faccio tre (tra i tanti possibili): quel lento e spettrale hillbilly in 3/4 scritto da Angelo Badalamenti per certe scene di Twin Peaks. Si porta dietro fantasmi affamati. Poi c’è l’ultima registrazione di Billie Holiday, Gloomy Sunday: appena uscito, quel pezzo, ha indotto al suicidio più di una dozzina di persone. Ed infine il Poem in ecstacy del compositore Alexander Scriabin. Quello di sicuro non lo posso reggere!
Dai un occhiata alla tua prolificissima carriera: come l’aggettiveresti nella sua totalità?
L’opera comica di un pagliaccio che canta in falsetto e piange polvere di stelle su di un asciugamano color notte; egli è un ripostiglio per le scope a forma d’uomo. Anzi, una mantide religiosa. Si scuote di dosso il dolore pur continuando a sprizzar sangue. Sempre alla ricerca di una cadenza bollente. Sghignazzante vi legge il suo menù: (riporto letteralmente, n.d.a.)
oratorio onanismo accelerando.
Cantata capriccioso.
Chorale affettuoso.
Coloratura crescendo.
Bravura scato(il)logica.
Requiem sri cappuccino.
Applauso nintendo.
Centimos diminuendo.
Stazione ferroviaria: chiusa.
Influenza.
E poi?
Fondamentalmente quest’opera consiste in un enorme profilattico ramificato a mo’ di polipo.
Chi è il ‘freak’, al giorno d’oggi?
Oggi di freak non ce ne sono più. Ad ogni modo esistono dei freak sotto mentite spoglie che chiamo ‘alieni’.
E chi è normale?
A dire il vero nessuno lo è. Probabilmente anche tu vieni da un altro mondo. E se così non fosse ti auguro di smascherare ‘uno di quelli’ il più presto possibile.
Un vizio al quale non sai porre rimedio?
Troppi per elencarli tutti: sono geloso, astioso, auto-commiserevole, vanitoso, ansioso, sessualmente ingordo, mangio scarafaggi vivi e mi piace succhiare limonata dall’ano prima di salire sul palco e cantare… e molti altri ancora.
Grazie adorati vizi! E adesso facciamoci una scorpacciata!
Come descriveresti il ‘successo’?
Prima devi visualizzarne la tua visione. Poi devi darti da fare per materializzarla. Definisco un ‘successo’ quando riesco a realizzare un ‘esperienza’ (per quanto labile) basata su una mia specifica visione.
Che mi dici della tuo periodo di militanza nei primi Soft Machine? Qual’era il tuo ruolo?
Ero quello che ci ha creduto per primo. Ero il più vecchio ma anche il più scriteriato. Il crudele poeta beatnik. Quello che si spogliava dei suoi appetiti in preda ad un isteria visionaria. L’organizzatore occulto e il chitarrista riluttante.
Perché hai lasciato i Gong dopo la realizzazione di You?
Volevo smettere di fumare la ‘roba’ e trovare una band che non ne fumasse. Restai nella band fino a quando il mio spirito guida m’impedì di salire sul palco durante una data in Inghilterra. Era la fine di un ciclo ma ormai la trilogia del pianeta Gong era stata raccontata sicché ne fui soddisfatto. Inizialmente fu proprio una liberazione. Poi mi sentii vuoto.
Cosa ricordi degli anni ‘80?
All’inizio degli anni ‘80 ero un propagandista militante della mia privatissima campagna anti-cannibalismo. Cercavo ovunque dei musicisti che non si ‘facessero’ e non mi riusciva di trovarne. Me ne andai a New York: Bill Laswell e i Material detestavano la gente ‘fatta’. Me ne andai con loro a suonare in Francia ma, a un certo punto, mi sembrava di essere un impiegato di banca. Una volta alloggiammo in una magione del 16esimo secolo circondata da una radura irreale. Questo mandò fuori di testa i ragazzi della band; trovai Bill in un’angolo tutto tremante che biascicava alla Humpery Bogart: “Le due del pomeriggio e tutti i negozi sono chiusi!”. Beh sai, erano ancora molto giovani… erano cresciuti nella giungla della concretezza, chiamavano quella magnificente foresta ‘il boschetto’. Tutto quello che volevano era un’asettica città, hamburger e un caffé castrato. La natura selvaggia li rendeva irrequieti. Comunque tenemmo dei bellissimi concerti. Peccato non aver mai suonato in Italia. Suscitammo una specie di rivolta allo Chez Les Breton. Trovarono una bomba a Marsiglia! Anche il Bataclan di Parigi era tosto. Ma presto mi annoiai e feci ritorno a New York dove sciolsi la band per realizzare un album infarcito di loop simile a certi cut-up registrati da William S. Burroughs. Ecco da dove vengono i campionamenti. Mi esibii come solista per gli Stati Uniti munito di questi loop sonori. Ribattezzai quell’insolita maniera di procedere Divided Alien Playbax Band (rintracciabile negli album Divided Alien Playbax, live at the Mistake cd 1 e 2, n.d.a.). Fatto ciò me ne tornai in Australia.
Cosa pensi del fermento provocato dalla new-wave?
La prima esibizione dei New York Gong avvenne allo Zu Manifestival organizzato da Giorgio Gomelski. Era il 1978. Invitò un sacco di gruppi no-wave come i Theoretical Girls, Thurston Moore, gli Static e i Floating Garbage. Con i Material suonai per la prima volta in quell’occasione. Era straordinario vedere Fred Frith suonare al Mudd Club. Davvero una combinazione ispirata!
Qualcuno vede Julian Cope come uno dei tuoi seguaci più riusciti.
Ah, mio caro signor Qualcuno! Mi chiedo cosa ne penserebbe Cope. Fosse anche vero, significherebbe che siamo tutti parte di un’infinita catena umana, una specie in evoluzione, un’enorme brigata.
T’infastidisce pensare di avere dei ‘seguaci’? Preferiresti restare unico e inimitato?
Forse siamo una processione di maghi: io ho seguito quello che mi precedeva e altri magari seguiranno il sottoscritto. O magari siamo una fila di elefanti dove quello che sta dietro tiene con la proboscide la coda di quello che lo precede… o una catena di sodomiti che si scambiano sostanze proteiche e gonorrea al contempo… o il serpente dell’arcobaleno chiamato Tesla.
Avessi la facoltà di scrutare nel futuro cosa ti augureresti di trovarci?
Uno specchio smisurato e una tazza di tè.
Come occupi il tuo tempo libero?
Come molta gente, mi troveresti intento a sognare, cibarmi, scoreggiare, pregare, meditare, disegnare, starnutire, dipingere, tenere reading di poesia, chiacchierare, svignarmela, intonare lo yodel al supermercato, svolgere lavori domestici, fare il papà, il nonno, la mamma, ascoltare gli altri, rimuginare, criticare, dichiarare la verità, fare l’amore, insabbiare le mie bugie, stupire, auto-commiserarmi, rinviare gli appuntamenti dal dentista e atteggiarmi da melodrammatica regina. Faccio visita a una teiera, qualche volta.
Qual è il tuo approccio alla tecnica musicale?
Mi ci approccio raggirandola con un certo minimalismo. Se così facendo non ottengo dei risultati cerco solamente di essere un dilettante ispirato.
Quando la musica si trasforma in rumore?
Quando inizi a considerarla tale.
Sì ma ci sarà pure un limite…
… il limite ha a che fare con il raggiungimento del proprio limite estetico. Ma non scordiamoci che esiste sempre quella porticina d’entrata: se il tuo ego è abbastanza piccolo da varcarla può ritrovarsi al centro del Suono e capire una volta per tutte il Linguaggio della Musica. È un mondo straordinario ma pericoloso allo stesso tempo, ricco di sensazioni e possibilità illimitate. Certa gente non vi ha mai fatto ritorno.
E delle improvvisazioni industriali di gruppi estremi come i Throbbing Gristle cosa ne pensi?
Dipende dal tipo di potere spirituale che si evoca e dal modo in cui questo si spinge all’interno dei musicisti. Capita che, improvvisamente, si avverta la totalità delle cose attraverso la voce di uno spirito che risuona all’interno di ogni cosa. Ad ogni modo Genesis P-Orridge è un amico e un artista che ammiro e rispetto particolarmente. Infierisce violentemente sul suo corpo al fine di essere sincero con la sua poetica artistica. Questa è dedizione totale. È un santo.
Ma cos’è che riesce a scandalizzare ancora le persone?
Tutto ciò che è relazionato alla paura. Il terrorismo, ad esempio. Se abbastanza estreme anche certe pratiche sessuali. Non è che sia poi così complicato scandalizzare fino a quando un ppene in erezione desterà meraviglia… specialmente se si tratta di un magnifico peene di 67 anni! (Allen è nato nel 1938, n.d.a.)
In cosa consiste la tua morale?
Essere onesto anche a discapito dell’etichetta, in un tripudio di etiche astratte e serenità patafisica.
Mai ceduto alla tentazione di avvicinarti ad un pubblico più vasto commercializzando la tua musica?
Ti risponderò come fece Idi Amin quando gli chiesero se si ritenesse un dittatore: “Non completamente”.
Qual è l’aspetto più straordinario dell’essere un artista?
Realizzi che non sei stato messo al mondo per accaparrare quanto più denaro o beni materiali possibile. Si può mettere tutto il nostro amore per lo Spirito della Vita dinnanzi agli altri e condividerlo con la tribù dei ‘soliti sospetti’.
Il magnifico galletto chiamato Hallelujah aggiunge: “L’artista altri non è che il bimbo figlio del proprio tempo, ma guai ad egli se diverrà il discepolo dell’arte o il suo coronabile paladino”.
