With their second work after the death of band founder Daevid Allen, the new Gong have to show their colours. Will the heirs manage to keep the Space Continuum, created in 1967, alive? Together with their frontman and guitarist Kavus Torabi we go on a little philosophical journey around the new trippy album "The Universe Also Collapses". To say it to Timothy Leary: Turn On! Tune In! Drop Out!
Gongs are cult. Already active since 1967 her journey went from Caterbury-Prog to Fusion to Space- and Jazzrock. And the Gong family is big. Tens of formations passed through the musical ether. Even after the death of Daevid Allen in 2015, a young incarnation floats through the room, because the soul of the band empowered Kavus Torabi to continue his vision of Gong in a last e-mail.
eclipsed: What's the deal with the album title "The Universe Also Collapses"?
Kavus Torabi: This refers to the idea that everything - from the beginning of the universe to its ultimate collapse and everything in between - happens in a single moment, in this moment.
eclipsed: How much do you care about cosmological models and theories?
Torabi: I'm not smart enough to understand all these sciences, although I like to read about quantum physics and string theory. But I have come to similar conclusions about psychedelic drugs and my own thinking processes. Nice to know I'm in tune with smart physicists.
eclipsed: During "Rejoice! I'm Dead! was a tribute album for Daevid Allen, you now seem to want to re-establish yourself as a psychedelic rock band.
Torabi: Right. A Post-Allen album under the name Gong will always divide the fans. At first it was very important to say goodbye to Daevid. Well, two years later and with positive reactions to our music, the band went on. But Gong have always been a psychedelic band, which means ecstatic, propulsive, transformative and spiritually enlightening.
