Pierre Moerlen's Gong was an instrumental

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as jazz rock, jazz-rock fusion, or simply fusion) is a popular music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric gui ...

band led by French drummer Pierre Moerlen which developed as an offshoot of the

Canterbury scene The Canterbury scene (or Canterbury sound) is a musical scene that originated in the city of Canterbury, Kent, England during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Associated with progressive rock, the term describes a loosely-defined, improvisation ...

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 ...

founded and led by Daevid Allen. It was notable for the prominent use of

mallet percussion A keyboard percussion instrument, also known as a bar or mallet percussion instrument, is a Pitched percussion instrument, pitched percussion instrument arranged in the same pattern as a piano keyboard and most often played using Percussion malle ...

, particularly

vibraphone The vibraphone (also called the vibraharp) is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using Percussion mallet, mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone ...

, in a

jazz-rock Jazz fusion (also known as jazz rock, jazz-rock fusion, or simply fusion) is a popular music Music genre, genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and jazz improvisation, improvisation with rock music, funk, a ...

context.

History

Amid a flurry of line-up changes in the mid-1970s, including the departure of founding members Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth, Gong drummer Pierre Moerlen was left in charge of the band with two albums remaining on a contract with

Virgin Virginity is a social construct that denotes the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. As it is not an objective term with an operational definition, social definitions of what constitutes virginity, or the lack thereof ...

. Moerlen formed a new line-up with his brother Benoit on mallet percussion, US-born bassist Hansford Rowe, and a rotating cast of session guitarists, notably

Allan Holdsworth Allan Holdsworth (6 August 1946 – 15 April 2017) was a British jazz and rock music, rock guitarist, violinist and composer. He contributed to numerous bands, including Soft Machine, U.K. (band), U.K., The Tony Williams Lifetime, Pierre Moerl ...

Mick Taylor Michael Kevin Taylor (born 17 January 1949) is an English guitarist, best known as a former member of John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers (1967–1969) and the Rolling Stones (1969–1974). As a member of the Stones, h ...

Mike Oldfield Michael Gordon Oldfield (born 15 May 1953) is an English retired musician, songwriter and producer best known for his debut studio album ''Tubular Bells'' (1973), which became an unexpected critical and commercial success. Though primarily a gu ...

, and Bon Lozaga. They released two albums under the Gong moniker, ''

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'' ...

'' (called ''Expresso'' in North America) in 1976 and then '' Expresso II'' in 1978. Following the completion of the Virgin contract, Moerlen changed the name of the group to Pierre Moerlen's Gong. In early 1979, the group released '' Downwind'', which was a more rock/pop flavoured album that featured occasional lead vocals by Moerlen himself and a cameo by

Steve Winwood Stephen Lawrence Winwood (born 12 May 1948) is an English musician and songwriter whose genres include blue-eyed soul, rhythm and blues, blues rock, and pop rock. Though primarily a guitarist, keyboard player, and vocalist prominent for his dis ...

. Later in 1979 they released another album, '' Time is the Key'', that took the band further into pop/rock territory. The live album "Pierre Moerlen's Gong Live" was released in 1980, followed by another studio album, '' Leave It Open'', in 1981. By this point, Pierre Moerlen's incarnation of Gong scaled back its activity greatly, not releasing another record until 1986's ''Breakthrough'', featuring members of the Swedish band Tribute. ''Second Wind'' followed in 1988. The group quietly disbanded soon after. Lozaga, Rowe, and Benoit Moerlen went on to form ''Gongzilla'' in the early 1990s, releasing four albums to date which are very much an extension of the percussive fusion that the original group brought to the fold, and they perform a mix of new and old live material going back to the ''Gazeuse''/''Expresso II'' period. Moerlen joined them for their 2002 European tour. Moerlen revived the Pierre Moerlen's Gong name in 2002 and recorded the album '' Pentanine'' with Russian musicians. The last Pierre Moerlen's Gong album was started in 2005 with another new line-up, this time of young French musicians, when Moerlen died unexpectedly on 3 May 2005, age 53, of natural causes. Although the project was at an early stage, the band nevertheless decided to record Pierre's last compositions, along with some of their own, and release it posthumously as ''Tribute'' in 2010.

Personnel

Discography

* 1976: ''

'' (''Expresso'' in North America) (issued as a "Gong" album) * 1978: '' Expresso II'' (issued as a "Gong" album) * 1979: '' Downwind'' * 1979: '' Time Is the Key'' * 1980: ''Pierre Moerlen's Gong Live'' * 1981: '' Leave It Open'' * 1986: ''Breakthrough'' * 1988: ''Second Wind'' * 1998: ''Full Circle Live '88'' * 2004: ''Pentanine'' * 2010: ''Tribute'' (post-Pierre Moerlen)

Filmography

* 2015: '' Romantic Warriors III: Canterbury Tales'' (DVD)

References

*Macan, E. L., Macan, E. (1997). Rocking the Classics: English Progressive Rock and the Counterculture. Germany: Oxford University Press. p. 243

External links

Planet Gong
* Pierre Moerlen's Gong on Allmusic Guide {{DEFAULTSORT:Pierre Moerlen's Gong Jazz-rock groups Jazz fusion ensembles Canterbury scene British progressive rock groups