Pierre Moerlen's Gong

Those of us who were lovers of the original Gong were all overjoyed when an incarnation that included Daevid Allen, Didier Malherbe and Steve Hillage came together for the album ‘2032’ last year and toured it this year. Back in 1978 we were not as happy when Pierre Moerlen created a band and gave it the title of Pierre Moerlen’s Gong as he was the sole link to any previous incarnation of Gong and the music was far more in the mainstream than a band with that name should have been.
In the meantime Pierre Moerlen went on to make 10 albums under the new name and saw it through a largely productive period until his untimely death in 2005.
Time has actually smiled on these albums because hearing them now they are examples of some of the best of the Jazz-Fusion world, filled with intrigue and brilliantly played and complex music.

‘Downwind’ was the first album that they recorded for Arista and with Moerlen fresh from his work with Mike Oldfield on ‘Tubular Bells’ and the link shows as the title number – featuring Oldfield on guitar and production – could easily have been a track from ‘Tubular Bells’.
The rest of the album is full of the percussion oriented music that Moerlen grew up with and among the influences are his time spent with Percussion De Strasbourg who did some major works by Stockhausen during his time with them.
The music throughout is quite mesmerising, building in intensity and sucking you in to the point where the music becomes the whole of your environment and the end of the album actually feels as though someone has switched on the light and shaken you out of a profound sleep – not easy to write about when you are in its’ thrall!

‘Time Is The Key’ was the follow up and once more he uses the slow build to develop themes and ‘peripheral’ percussion such as Glockenspiel and triangle to create melodies. The occasional use of a fairly heavy guitar pattern actually breaks the music up a little but the overall impression is still that of hypnotic depth and power.

The re-issue of these two albums has been a while in coming but the result is well worth it. Two of the better Jazz/Rock fusion albums of the late ‘70’s and a great listen today.