£9.99

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Catalogue number

BMOVP017CD

Release date

13/11/2006

Format

CD

Label

Bananamoon Obscura

Guru & Zero

Beauty and the Basket Case

Daevid Allen was born in Melbourne Australia although he has been a traveller of the world for many years. Daevid came to England in 1960 and met up with Robert Wyatt whilst lodging with the Wyatt family. Daevid and Robert struck up an immediate rapport, which would ultimately result in the pair playing together in Soft Machine. Before that Daevid spent time in Paris where he met and experimented with Terry Riley and also performed with William Burroughs. Daevid also formed a number of bands including The Daevid Allen Trio.

Some of the trio’s early recordings were subsequently released however it was with The Soft Machine alongside Mike Ratledge, Kevin Ayers and Robert Wyatt that Daevid Allen first came to the attention of many people. Soft Machine was at the forefront of the psychedelia movement and played at many prominent gigs at this time such as the IT launch at the Roundhouse alongside Pink Floyd. Following a gig in St. Tropez Daevid was refused re entry to England and decided to return to France and from there Daevid and Gilli Smyth went to Deia where they met Didier Malherbe who would go on to become a vital part of their next band Gong.

During this period Daevid recorded the albums Magick Brother and Banana Moon Gong also came into being at this point and played their first concerts. Over the years Gong was to be a proving ground for many incredible musicians and a number of popular albums were recorded and many gigs played. Gong also moved between many musical genres from jazz, rock and even ambient music before the term had even been coined. Daevid Allen however left Gong in 1975 along with Gilli Smyth and the band would carry on for a number of years without the guiding force of Daevid Allen initially led by Steve Hillage and subsequently in a more jazz oriented direction by Pierre Moerlen.

Daevid then spent many years moving around the world (America, Australia, and Spain) all the time forming bands and recording until in 1988 he returned to England and formed Gongmaison along with Didier Malherbe in tow once again. Gong has continued to this day constantly re inventing itself and proving to be as popular as ever with many archive and new recordings becoming available.

Guru and Zero: Beauty and the Basket Case is the latest in the second batch of recordings in the Bananamoon Obscura series of recordings. The recording captures Daevid Allen alongside Acid Mothers Temple members Makoto & Cotton. The concert was a spontaneous concert and was recorded in America in 2002.