''Angel's Egg'' is the fourth studio album by the

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

band

Gong A gongFrom Indonesian language, Indonesian and ; ; zh, c=鑼, p=luó; ; ; ; ; is a percussion instrument originating from Southeast Asia, and used widely in Southeast Asian and East Asian musical traditions. Gongs are made of metal and ...

, released on

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

in December 1973. It was recorded using the Manor Mobile studio at Gong's communal home, Pavillon du Hay, Voisines, France, and mixed at The Manor, Oxfordshire, England. The album was produced by "Gong under the direction of

Giorgio Gomelsky Giorgio Sergio Alessando Gomelsky (28 February 1934 – 13 January 2016) was a filmmaker, impresario, music manager, songwriter (as Oscar Rasputin) and record producer. He was born in Georgia, grew up in Switzerland, and later lived in the Un ...

". ''Angel's Egg'' is the second in Gong's ''Radio Gnome Invisible'' trilogy of albums, following '' Flying Teapot'' and preceding ''

You In Modern English, the word "''you''" is the second-person pronoun. It is grammatically plural, and was historically used only for the dative case, but in most modern dialects is used for all cases and numbers. History ''You'' comes from ...

''. The trilogy forms a central part of the Gong mythology. The original album did not have an apostrophe in the title. The original vinyl edition came with a booklet containing an extensive explanation of the mythology, including lyrics, a glossary of terms, and profiles of characters in the story and band members. This edition also had a gatefold cover (omitted in later pressings), a plain inky blue inner sleeve to match the gate fold and booklet, and had the original black and white Virgin label which was discontinued after 1973; it was one of the last albums to use the original label. Some copies had a sticker over top of the female nude in the moon on the cover. The CD version released by

, and later reissued on

Charly Records Charly Records is a British record label that specialises in reissued material. Among the labels whose original releases are reissued by Charly are Vee-Jay, Sun, Immediate, BYG, Tomato, and Fania. History Charly Records was founded in Fran ...

contains an extra track: "Ooby-Scooby Doomsday or The D-day DJs Got the D.D.T. Blues", that ends with a male voice choir

glissando In music, a glissando (; plural: ''glissandi'', abbreviated ''gliss.'') is a wikt:glide, glide from one pitch (music), pitch to another (). It is an Italianized Musical terminology, musical term derived from the French ''glisser'', "to glide". In ...

(questionably regarded by some as a parody on

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experiments ...

's "Echoes"), starting with "Ahhhh" and ending with "Chooo", mimicking a sneeze. The track was originally released on the '' Live Etc.'' album but was excluded from the CD release (which reissued that double album as one disc), and included on this album instead. A half speed master cut at

Abbey Road ''Abbey Road'' is the eleventh studio album by the English rock band the Beatles, released on 26 September 1969, by Apple Records. It is the last album the group recorded, although '' Let It Be'' (1970) was the last album completed before th ...

by Miles Showell using the 2018 96k24bit files was released in the UK on 180 gram vinyl for

Record Store Day Record Store Day is a semi-annual event established in 2008 to "celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store". Held on one Saturday (typically the third) every April and every Black Friday in November, the day brings together f ...

on 22 April 2023 to mark the album’s 50th anniversary. This release was in a gatefold sleeve with a replica of the original 16-page Blue Book of lyrics and drawings plus an Abbey Road Certificate.

Track listing

Unusual spellings are as listed on the cover of the original edition. Also, take note that in some CD editions, on the back cover, tracks 7 and 8 are numbered 7a and 7b so that tracks 9-15 have a unity less than the CD reader (included the bonus track that numbers 14 on the cover and 15 on the CD reader). The instrumental section at the end of "Sold to the Highest Buddha" is referred to as "6/8 sax" in the cover notes, and became a separate piece titled "6/8" on Gong Live Etc. "Selene" is a completely different song from one with the same title on an earlier Gong album,

Camembert Electrique ''Camembert Electrique'' (French: ''Electric Camembert'') is the second studio album by the progressive rock band Gong, recorded and originally released in 1971 on the French BYG Actuel label. The album was recorded at Château d'Hérouville near ...

. Similarly, "Percolations" is a completely different song from the one with the same title on the later Gong album,

Gazeuse! ''Gazeuse!'' ( French for 'Sparkling!', 'Fizzy!' or 'Effervescent!') is the seventh album released under the name Gong and the ''de facto'' debut album by Pierre Moerlen's Gong. It was released in late 1976. The title was changed to ''Expresso'' ...

. Later CD editions add more bonus tracks, including demo vocal versions with altered mixing.

Charts

Personnel

Note: Pseudonyms and absurd instrument names selected by Daevid Allen are used on the album credits; real names are used in composer credits, and are shown in brackets. * Bloomdido Bad De Grasse (

Didier Malherbe Didier Malherbe (born 22 January 1943) is a French jazz, rock, and world music musician and poet. He is a member of the bands Gong and Hadouk. He plays the saxophone, flute, alto clarinet, ocarina, Laotian Khen, Bawu flute, Hulusi, and ma ...

) – ten/sop sax, floot, bi-focal vocal * Shakti Yoni (

Gilli Smyth Gillian Mary Smyth (1 June 1933 – 22 August 2016) was an English musician best known for co-founding the psychedelic rock group Gong with her partner Daevid Allen in 1967. She also released music with spinoff groups Mother Gong and Plane ...

) – space whisper, loin cackle * T. Being esq. (

Mike Howlett Michael John Gilmour Howlett (born 27 April 1950) is a bass guitar player, 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 ...

, spelled Howlitt on composer credits) – basso profundo * Sub. Capt. Hillage (

Steve Hillage Stephen Simpson Hillage (born 2 August 1951) is an English musician, best known as a guitarist. He is associated with the Canterbury scene and has worked in experimental domains since the late 1960s. Besides his solo sound recording and reprodu ...

) – lewd guitar * Hi T. Moonweed (the favourite) (

Tim Blake Timothy Blake (born 6 February 1952, in Shepherd's Bush, London) is an English keyboardist, synthesist, vocalist, and composer, who is known for working with Gong, Hawkwind and his synthesizer and light performances as Crystal Machine, with th ...

) – Cynthia "size a", lady voce * Pierre de

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

(

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 Pie ...

, spelled Moerlin on composer credits) – bread & batteur drums, vibes,

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 mari ...

* Mirielle de

(

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 ''Yo ...

) –

glockenspiel The glockenspiel ( ; or , : bells and : play) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a Musical keyboard, keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the v ...

* Dingo Virgin (

Daevid Allen Christopher David "Daevid" Allen (13 January 1938 – 13 March 2015) was an Australian musician. He was co-founder of the psychedelic rock groups Soft Machine (in the UK, 1966) and Gong (band), Gong (in France, 1967).McFarlane, 1999, Biograp ...

) – local vocals, aluminium croon, glissando guitar

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Angel's Egg (Album) 1973 albums 1970s concept albums Gong (band) albums Progressive rock albums by British artists Space rock albums