Gonzo recently released the University of Errors live In Chicago album.It was part of a series of recordings featuring Daevid Allen called the Bananamoon Obscura Series This album can be ordered directly from the Gonzo website
www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk
Here in a feature originally published in the Newsprint magazine Daevid discusses the series of recordings.
Daevid Allen
Bananmoon Obscura
The story of Daevid Allen’s musical activities has more twists and turns than your average governments first term of office. Whether it was with Soft Machine, Gong or the many Gong offshoot bands of which there are enough to keep even the most dedicated of rock biographers busy for many years. The man never stays still for long enough for anyone to pigeonhole him and perhaps that is the way he likes it.
While many people will only be interested in his Gong activities there are also a great many who follow his every musical move. For these people the Bananmoon Obscura series of recordings will be like manna from heaven. The series has been put together personally by Daevid and features some of the more interesting avenues of his musical journey’s
Each recording comes from Daevid’s vast musical archive and is limited to just one thousand copies of each CD, which makes each title an instant collectors item.
The idea for the series was initially from Voiceprint MD Rob Ayling who suggested that Daevid must have plenty of unreleased recordings that could be made available for release that were either historic or contained some magic moments and as Daevid explains:
I was being interviewed one Saturday morning on LBC when we were joined by Genesis P Orridge of Throbbing Gristle fame & an amazing artistic integrity has he. Anyway he was there to promote his Psychic TV ‘Astory’ collector’s series on Voiceprint & Rob Ayling subsequently offered a similar thing to me. I saw it as a chance to make public a series of limited editions of my favourite moments of inspired musical & poetic creativity in each of the styles I have experimented with. Solo shows, duets, Spanish acoustic, Jazz Rock, Ambient, Electro Acoustic, Imp pro Rock, Guitar glissando & Theremin, Experimental Sound Inventions, Atonal Textures, Tape loops & collage, Performance Poetry etc. I also felt free to use tapes/disks that were perhaps too low fi for normal release.
“I immediately thought there were a whole bunch of things like that so I thought as long as I put; In Glorious Lo-Fi on the cover this could be a really interesting thing and with modern technology we have managed to clean the recordings up so the outcome of that is that there are some really magic moments that are going to be plonked on little CDs and sold as little delicacies I suppose”
Keeping an archive such as this and deciding what to release and what not to release is also more time consuming than you might think again Daevid Allen explains:
“Well that’s the most energy consuming part of it actually just having to go through it and listen to it all. You’ll hear something and think it’s great and then you listen to it perhaps when you are driving and it sounds shit and you think how could I have thought that was good. It’s very tricky but over a period of time it becomes clear to you that some things have got a real golden quality about them and they’re the ones you’re looking for.” Keeping an archive requires a fair bit of discipline together with an instinct for recognising a good-recorded gig or magic moment & making sure you get a copy.
It is pretty much a question of playing the music in different states of mind & consciousness until you are sure that the overall effect is up to scratch.
Then it depends on the magic ears of Dallas at Serendipity who cleverly restores the crappiest old tapes & disks filled with clicks & dropouts…the man is a genius!
Another plus for the fans are that none of the releases that make up the series have ever been released before so people really will be getting something perhaps old and yet new.
There will be around half a dozen releases initially but Daevid does have other recordings he would like to release.
“I can see at least 20 releases and maybe more. The archives are mostly held by GAS in Glastonbury.”The series encompasses Daevid’s work with bands like the University of Errors, Euterpe, Magick Brothers, Invisible Opera Company And a concert Daevid gave with Nicoletta Stephanz in New York when the set was put together literally a couple of hours before going onstage.
“A few hours before the gig we had a meeting in a hotel room for about two hours where we worked out a plan of action that was all. We were each inspired by the other & it was a momentous occasion since Nicoletta went on to appear with Gong in Philadelphia & with University of Errors on UGLY MUSIC FOR MONICA CD & with Magick Brothers at the UK Big Green Festival 03”.
One of Daevid’s favourite recordings in the series is an acoustic compilation, which draws on three sources for its content.
“It’s like an acoustic composite because the songs are taken from three different albums but it’s the way they’re put together and they become a sort of companion volume to the other acoustic songs set I’ve got.”
Of the other releases in the series, which is probably one of the most eclectic series of releases that Voiceprint has handled, there are recordings of Daevid with Brainbox which features Pip Pyle and Hugh Hopper two stalwarts of the Canterbury scene and a live recording of Daevid and Russell Hibbs performing their favourite songs and poems in front of a small intimate audience. When asked the seemingly crass question of whether Daevid feels happy with the direction and various twists and turns his career has taken he answers with good humour
“I guess so, the thing is I’d just do it anyway and if it doesn’t work I just eat spaghetti.”
The Bananamoon Obscura series will be issued throughout 2004. Daevid Allen has personally supervised the digital transfer of each recording and each release is limited to just one thousand copies making them the ultimate collectors item for Daevid Allen and Gong fans the world over.
© Jon Kirkman 2003 and 2011
Buy the University of Errors Live In Chicago along with other Daevid Allen and Gong CDs and DVDs directly from the Gonzo Website
http://www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk/site.php?s=2&action=list_table&t=products&filter_id=152&dbf_search_for=Daevid+Allen+%28artist%29&image.x=12&image.y=14
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