''Shamal'' is the sixth studio album released under the name

Gong A gongFrom Indonesian and ms, gong; jv, ꦒꦺꦴꦁ ; zh, c=鑼, p=luó; ja, , dora; km, គង ; th, ฆ้อง ; vi, cồng chiêng; as, কাঁহ is a percussion instrument originating in East Asia and Southeast Asia. Gongs ...

and was released by

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), Tom Newman. It ...

on 13 February 1976 The album, produced by Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason was recorded in December 1975. The album was recorded by a unique line-up referred to later as "Shamal-Gong". It is usually regarded as a transitional album between Daevid Allen's incarnation of the band and the Pierre Moerlen-led fusion line-up of the late 1970s.

Reception

Reviewing the album for the website Sputnikmusic, Robert Davis said:

The greatest thing about ''Shamal'' is that it's so versatile. There are only six tracks here, but each one seems to explore a different tone and aspect of musical experimentation. The softer tracks such as opener "Wingful of Eyes" and beautiful, elegant flute-led "Bambooji" are complementary to the album's quirkier tracks, such as the almost Frank Zappa-inspired "Cat in Clark's Shoes" and eccentric closing title track. Yet what really glues all these songs together is the absence of self-indulgent musicianship and a definite knowledge of perfect instrumental placements.

Track listing

In 2018, a 2-CD remastered edition of the album was issued by UMC containing one CD of live material recorded in 1975, and unreleased bonus tracks to the regular album.

Personnel

;Gong *

Mike Howlett Michael John Gilmour Howlett (born 27 April 1950) is a record producer and teacher based in the United Kingdom and Australia. Career In the late 1960s, Howlett was the bassist in Sydney pop band the Affair, which included vocalist Kerrie Bidde ...

–

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

, vocals *

Didier Malherbe Didier Malherbe (born January 22, 1943 in Paris), is a French jazz, rock and world music musician, known as a member of the bands Gong and Hadouk, as well as a poet. His first instrument was a saxophone, but he also plays flutes, alto clarin ...

–

tenor sax The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the Alto saxophone, alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key ...

soprano sax The soprano saxophone is a higher-register variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument invented in the 1840s. The soprano is the third-smallest member of the saxophone family, which consists (from smallest to largest) of the soprillo, sop ...

, flute, bansuri,

gong A gongFrom Indonesian and ms, gong; jv, ꦒꦺꦴꦁ ; zh, c=鑼, p=luó; ja, , dora; km, គង ; th, ฆ้อง ; vi, cồng chiêng; as, কাঁহ is a percussion instrument originating in East Asia and Southeast Asia. Gongs ...

s *

Mireille Bauer Mireille Bauer (born 24 August 1951, Barr, Alsace, northeastern France) is a French percussionist and former member of Gong. Through her then boyfriend Pierre Moerlen, she first worked with Gong in a session capacity on '' Angel's Egg'' and ''You' ...

–

marimba The marimba () is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the timbre ...

, glockenspiel,

xylophone The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Like the glockenspiel (which uses metal bars), the xylophone essentially consists of a set of tuned wooden keys arranged in ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

s *

Pierre Moerlen Pierre Moerlen (23 October 1952, Colmar, Haut-Rhin – 3 May 2005, Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, near Strasbourg) was a French drummer and percussionist, best known for his work with Gong and Mike Oldfield and as Pierre Moerlen's Gong. Biography Pi ...

– drums,

vibraphone The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist ...

tubular bell Tubular bells (also known as chimes) are musical instruments in the percussion family. Their sound resembles that of church bells, carillon, or a bell tower; the original tubular bells were made to duplicate the sound of church bells within a ...

s * Patrice Lemoine – organ,

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

, synthesizer ;Former Gong * Steve Hillage – acoustic guitar,

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...

("Bambooji" and "Wingful of Eyes") *

Miquette Giraudy Miquette Giraudy is a French keyboard player and vocalist, best known for her work in Gong, and with her partner Steve Hillage. She and Hillage form the core of the ambient band System 7. She has also worked as an actress, film editor and write ...

– vocals ("Bambooji") ;Guest musicians * Jorge Pinchevsky –

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

("Chandra", "Bambooji", "Cat In Clark's Shoes", "Shamal"), voice ("Cat In Clark's Shoes") * Sandy Colley – vocals ("Shamal")

Production

* Nick Mason: producer * Clive Arrowsmith: artwork, photography * Phil Ault: engineer * Dave Hutchins: engineer * Ben Tavera King: engineer * Rick Curtain: engineer * Ben King: engineer

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1975 albums Gong (band) albums Albums produced by Nick Mason Pierre Moerlen's Gong albums Progressive rock albums by British artists