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Brian Hopper

One of the original founders of the "Canterbury Scene", reminisces with Jon Kirkman about Soft Machine, Robert Wyatt and also talks about his new studio and the guests who play on it.

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Featuring an audience with Dave Brock of Hawkwind
 
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Cover scan for Tree in Fish
 
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Catalogue number
VP281CD
Release date
26/04/2004
Format
CD
Label
Voiceprint
Mother Gong
Tree in Fish
Disc 1
1. Simple I 2. Four Horsemen 3. Buddhas Birthday 4. Faces (with Tom the Poet) 5. Cafe Reflections 6. The House is not the Same (Lyrics from Henry Normal) 7. Tree II 8. Greenfields (with Didier Malherbe and Shamal at Glastonbury) 9. Wilful Housewife 10. Song of Skye 11. Simple II 12. La Dea Madri edit. 13. She smiled 14. Crying 15. Medicine Woman with Kangeroo Moon at the Bellingen Festival 16. Aere

Gilli Smyth first came to the attention of the rock buying fraternity through her work with her then lover Daevid Allen in Gong.

Gong came into being almost by accident in the late sixties when Daevid Allen was refused entry back into Britain following European dates with Soft Machine. Deciding to stay in Paris Allen began working with Gilli Smyth and various musicians on what would eventually be recognised as Gong. The first recognised recordings from the band were Magick Brother, Mystic Sister in 1970. Followed by albums such as Camembert Electrique, Flying Teapot, Angels Egg and You. The first three albums released followed the fortunes of Zero The Hero and told the tale of the pothead pixies and was told over the course of the next three albums and became the Radio Gnome Invisible Trilogy. This mythological story was extremely popular and the resultant albums sold exceptionally well however following the departure of core members Daevid Allen, Gilli Smyth and Steve Hillage citing the age old musical differences reason for leaving the band Gong moved in a more jazz oriented direction with the addition of Allan Holdsworth alongside Pierre Moerlen and Didier Malherbe. Allen, Smyth and Hillage have all recorded as solo artists and Smyth subsequently formed the offshoot Mother Gong.

Mother Gong's first album Mother was released in 1978 and the band found Gilli Smyth collaborating with many musicians including Harry Williamson and various friends and family including at various times Harry Williamson, Daevid Allen, Hugh Hopper and David Jackson.

The recordings on this album come from the same period as the Wild Child sessions and include the same line up of musicians and were recorded utilising the same techniques as employed on Wild Child.

This re issue has now been re mastered for re issue and takes it's place alongside the other recordings in this series from Mother Gong.

Reviews

This is one of Mother Gongıs strongest and most representative efforts, albeit a little late in the groupıs classic period. The line-up includes Robert Calvert (saxes), Conrad Henderson (bass) and Robert George (drums and percussion), in addition to the nucleus of Gilly Smyth and Harry Williamson. Old Gong mate Didier Malherbe guests on Greenfields, delivering a smooth flute solo on a track similar in style to the light jazz-rock recipe he favored at the time. Other guests on the album include Tom the Poet, Shayamal Maitra and Kangeroo Moon. Recorded in part during Mother Gongs 1991 tour of America and in part in an Australian studio, Tree in Fish offers a good balance of space poetry and groovy instrumentals. Smythıs effect-drenched voice takes center stage, but the musicians are left ample room to breathe. Four Horsemen, Wilful Housewife and The House Is Not the Same (the latter with brilliant lyrics by Henry Normal) remain among her best performances from that era. Buddhas Birthday, the aforementioned Greenfields and Song of Skye provide pleasant lyric-less interludes -- the latter piece is unusually tender and pretty, bordering on easy listening. This albums strength resides in its free-flowing, spontaneous-sounding tracklist hiding carefully-scored tunes. Tracks like She Smiled, Cafe Reflections and the two Simple pieces keep things ethereal and improvised, framing more precise songs into a single album context -- a feature that islacking on the groupıs other records.

François Couture