Acid Mothers Gong

Live At The Uncon [DVD]

Label: Voiceprint Country: UK

"When the Acid Mothers Gong band manifested in 2003 it was yet another story in the evolving history of Gong, which started in 1968 in Paris.

Daevid Allen had returned there after being refused entry to U.K. for visa reasons when on the way to the Edinburgh Festival with Soft Machine so he put his energy into Gong which quickly came to the forefront of the avant garde. Paris was heating up for the Revolution of workers and students against the Government, and Daevid with Gilli Smyth, had to flee as revolutionaries. They were in danger of being arrested for playing music to the students. After a disastrous trip to Morocco, they returned to Paris in 1969 to play at the Amougies Festival. They made several albums, and lived communally, which was an inspiration to that generation, and in 1971 Actuel Magazine voted them the best alternative band in France.

By l975 the band had moved to the U.K and both Gilli Smyth and Daevid Allen had left to pursue solo careers with their own bands such as Mother Gong, New York Gong, Gong Maison, PlanetGong and eventually Acid Mothers Gong. As Steve Hillage said "nobody ever left", and the history of Gong has been ever changing, like a river.

Acid Mothers are a collection of improvising musicians with formidable technical skills and a philosophical stance that has placed them at the tip of the Japanese underground iceberg. With more than 100 CD's to their name, they have a massive cult following internationally and are well known for never having played the same song the same way twice! They were the perfect choice allowing Gilli and Daevid to go where few have ventured.

Daevid and Gilli recorded an album in Australia with Acid Mothers in 2003, toured Japan with them a couple of times, and played the set (which is now this DVD) at the "Unconventional Gong Gathering" in Amsterdam in November 2006. The recordings from that event were mixed and mastered by Harry Williamson at Spring Studios in Melbourne, with assistance from Daevid Allen, and Harry also did the psychedelic video edit, and created special effects which complement the music perfectly.

This DVD is of a magical combination of musicians coming together to push the boundaries of improvised music - the line up is Daevid Allen, Kawabata Makoto, Gilli Smyth, Higashi Hiroshi, Yoshida Tatsuya and Atsushi Tsuyama with special guest Josh Pollock from the University of Errors."-Voiceprint