Written by As Classic Rock’s Zoom window opens, Gong’s psychedelic skipper Kavus Torabi is framed in the window of his Glastonbury home, vigorously strumming his guitar. “You’re hearing the coda for my next solo album!” the band-hopping frontman and solo artist shouts gleefully.
Hang on, Kavus, there’s the upcoming new Gong album, Bright Spirit, to talk about first…
What’s the story behind Bright Spirit?
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There wasn’t a story, but an intent that this would close a trilogy that started with The Universe Also Collapses [2019], the second album with this line-up of Dave [Sturt, bass], Ian [East, winds], Cheb [Nettles, drums] and Fabio [Golfetti, guitar], and the beginning of this version of Gong proper.
In the middle was Unending Ascending [2023], made of songs that had been rigorously road-tested. Bright Spirit is songs we worked on in the studio with ideas that repeat from all three records. Our process is collaborative, with a lot of push and pull. Lots of ideas are great but get rejected.
The album is varied in styles, with some interesting electronica popping up.
A couple of years ago I got given a little monophonic synth, which I love, so it’s all over the last Utopia Strong album, all over Bright Spirit, and all over my forthcoming solo record. I decided I was going to rinse everything I could out of it for this period.
And you’ve written your first love song, Fragrance Of Paradise.
I’ve written about heartbreak and unrequited love before. I can only write from where I’m at and I’m in love… My lyrics have become really florid because of it.
So as well as taking care of Gong, you’ve got your experimental band the Utopia Strong (with former snooker star and DJ partner-in-crime Steve Davis), your solo work, and you’re also in the revived Cardiacs. Does the material cross over at all?
No, I keep these separate. With Gong I’m sort of the gatekeeper.
Because Gong founder Daevid Allen ‘bequeathed’ the band to you when he passed away in 2015?
Yes. And it’s a strange position to be in, almost like necromancy. Sometimes, after gigs, people will say: “You were channelling Daevid up there.” I’m not, I’m being myself within the parameters of Gong. There’s no denying that Gong has changed me. I was never a navel-gazing shrinking violet, but when you’re fronting a band with this much history, and with a character as large as Daevid, I’m not trying to fill his shoes, but I have to bring out something bigger.
How do you keep Daevid in the music?
I only knew Daevid for a short period. We did a few shows, hung out a bit, talked a lot on email and Zoom. With the exception of Cheb, everyone played with David much longer than I did, and he’d picked everybody to be in the later version of Gong, so they’re bringing their voices. Daevid and Steve Hillage said Fabio is the best glissando guitar player that they’d ever heard, and I concur. Ian’s playing is so innately Gong with the Balkan and African stuff. Dave plays fretless bass, which Gong had never had before. He’s incredible. The one thing we don’t write so much of is on the whimsical side, that’s not really me.
Bright Spirit is out now via Kscope.
