Some of you who know me are aware of the special place Daevid Allen and Gong have in my heart. I have been in love with them since I first heard Gong (the incredible "A Sprinkling Of Clouds") on a local radio show in January 1975.
Here is how I looked back in those days :-)
I never heard anything like this before and music has never affected and altered my mind like this ever again. Since then I have been following Daevid's journey through the ages and was lucky enough to be at the Gong 25 Birthday Party celebration in London in 1994 .
A few years later I had the chance to meet and work with Daevid on his first visit to Israel in 1999 doing the sound for his show at
the Next Festival recording and mixing a track (entitled by Daevid- Israeligliss ) that ended up on his album Sacred Geometry. In 2005 I initiated and presented a 3 part 6 hours radio program about The Life and Times of Daevid for local 106 FM and later conducted an interview with him for Expose Magazine. In 2006 Auris Media organized a show for Brainville 3 (Daevid Allen Hugh Hopper & Chris Cutler) doing the sound and recording the show (one of the songs was included in Brainville's new live album released on RerMegacorp) . More recently Auris Media produced a special Daevid Allen weekend in Tel Aviv's Barby club with 2 different bands Acidmothers Gong & University Of Errors. 2 different nights and 2 completely different sides and approaches of Daevid's music.
Acid Mothers Gong the most recent addition to the Gong bands family is a merging of yin and yang - east and west different generations different approaches this group consists Japan's Acid Mother's Temple leader Makoto Kawabata Tatsuya Yoshida the master drummer /composer of Ruins & Koenjihakkei Josh Polack and Daevid. Acid Mothers Gong play a improvised (real time composed) noisy abrasive piercing radical take on psychedelic space music .This show had the typical effect on the local audience ie: splitting them into two camps either loving them (as I do) or the other half that was expecting the nostalgic "classic" sound of Gong who could not digest this mayhem.
The 2nd night was University Of Errors playing an hard rocking brilliant take of Daevid's period with The Soft Machine."University of Errors revives, re-informs, and reinvents Soft Machine's psychedelic rock and pop of the era, kicking it into the 21st century and resulting a sound that is entirely new." And this show was one of the very best live performances I have had a chance to mix - what a great display of musicianship energy power and inspiration, For me the peak was Daevid and Josh's duel/showdown- sparks were flying !
Thank you Daevid and Co. for a tremendous week end you were all able to make us feel alive and happy!
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