daevid allen

In our last interview - 2009 at the Burg Herzberg Festival in Germany - you told me, that you see Gong-sound as "cosmic inferno". What concrete did you mean with it?

Wow did I say that? It sounds more like a description of the Magma sound! At this moment I see the Gong sound as more oceanic than fiery. More like a cosmic sub-aquatic dance. There is a deep spiritual warmth in the ocean and I say that because I live beside the Pacific Ocean here in Australia.

If Gong were to leave a musical signature hanging in the air I would like to think it combined compassion, connection, philosophic and political inspiration together with expressive and unfettered sensual movement as in dance or transcendent sexual union.

Does your new album "I See You" stand in the tradition of the legendary "Radio Gnome"-trilogy?

No, the trilogy which became a seven part series has revealed all it needs to reveal.

This is a brand new epoch for gong, a new generation discovering its own path and my grateful farewell to everyone in the Gong family.

Why you let us wait long five years for a new Gong-album?

Gong is in no hurry. It grows like a garden or like a magnificent tree.

When the moment comes and a new creation is appropriate, the right circumstances come together and a new album occurs.

What about the actual Gong-lineup - how it came together? How you asked the members to join the band, also your son Orlando?

Gong is not so much a band as a community of bands and an even larger community of excellent musicians.

It was Gong horn player Theo Travis who, unable to fulfill certain dates approached our latest horn player Ian East only to find that Ian could play Oily Way faster than he could!

Mike Howlett was unable to continue on bass due to his academic commitments so Dave Sturt was recruited from the Bill Nelson band by Steve Hillage I think.

Fabio Golfetti in my opinion is both the best glissando guitar player I know and also a quality soloist and we have been friends since the early nineties when his band Violeta de Outono was huge in Brazil.

I met Kavus Torabi at a radio interview on UK snooker champion and music lover Steve Davis's show.

His guitar playing on this album is as spectacular as his composition: "When God shakes hands with the devil".

Orlando's time has been long in coming due to his commitments to his career as Producer in Australia but he is here now, and there is no greater thrill than to play with your own son.

Orlando was originally mentored by Pierre Moerlen.

Are you still convinced by the theory that the aliens will come to earth in 2032, what you told me in our last interview five years ago?

There is no logical explanation for my conviction because it came as inner instruction. But it feels to me that it is very likely to happen.

What about your illness - how strong is its influence to your musical creativity?

Well at 76 and having just survived a massive operation for cancer from which I have not yet fully recovered, I have to admit it is unlikely that I will continue touring. My creativity is still very much alive. It is more a question of the future quality of my bodily survival.

What about the lyrics on your new album - is there a kind of concept behind them?

It is fundamentally the work of a very fresh and exciting new Gong band superimposed with my own heart-felt gratitude to all the musicians and spectators for having being there for all these years.

Why you have titled the new album "I See You"?

Because I do see you all very clearly and I deeply appreciate you all for supporting Gong. I hope you will all continue to support this tradition of freewheeling organic music and make it an enjoyable ride together.

Are there already some concrete plans for the Gong-future - or is that not possible under the actual circumstances?

I know Gong will continue as an original musical tradition because the music it creates is more important than any one of its many notable and highly original contributors.

Thanks for the interview Michael.

Cheers,

daevid