Label: Kscope Records
Release date: 3/13/2026
Production: Gong
Length: 43.42 min
Genre: Progressive Rock / Canterbury Scene
Rating: 9.0/10
The new cosmic cycle of planet Gong and its radio gnomes, who live there in flying teapots, rolls on with the latest album “Bright Spirit,” where singer/guitarist Kavus Torabi and his seasoned bandmates keep faithfully following the spirit and work of the legendary Daevid Allen (1938-2015). “Bright Spirit” is already the fourth album from these cult heroes of the so-called Canterbury scene since Allen’s death, and it keeps his cosmic-psychedelic creative visions alive, even if in a somewhat less eccentric and avant-garde way.
“Bright Spirit” has everything longtime Gong devotees could wish for, led by experimental and unpredictable psychedelic space-rock compositions that sound like they were made in the first half of the seventies, in other words the golden era of this genre/musical movement. Still, modern-day Gong bring quite a few fresh musical ideas, mostly thanks to the charismatic Torabi, a Brit of Iranian descent, who brought some world-music elements to a few of the tracks.
You can hear it right away on the excellent psychedelic adventure “Dream of Mine,” which draws on Middle Eastern music through pentatonic scales and passionate sax arrangements. It all sounds like visitors from another planet landed in the middle of a Tehran bazaar and, completely dazed by the local spices and assorted other ‘herbs,’ joined the locals in a wild dance. Definitely a track that would give every die-hard worshipper of the current American administration terrible diarrhea, while old and young Gong fans will enjoy listening to it like they haven’t in ages.
“Mantivule” is a more jazz-leaning instrumental on which Gong remind us that during a short period in the second half of the seventies, when a new faction formed under the late drummer Pierre Moerlen, they valued jazz fusion more than psychedelic rock/space rock, even though this creation sounds like an almost ideal hybrid of the two genres. The serene, dreamy “The Wonderment” is more of an out-and-out space-rock achievement, with mighty layers of synths that recall the golden days of electronic-ambient and new age music, as made by masters like Jean-Michel Jarre and our own Miha Kralj, although this one isn’t an instrumental.
The much more energetic and at times almost epic “Stars in Heaven” successfully continues the eclectic direction of “Bright Spirit.” The main peculiarity of Torabi’s singing is that in approach, though not in vocal timbre, it often recalls Allen. “Fragrance of Paradise” at times sounds like some lost but recently rediscovered composition from the days of the unforgettable “Radio Gnome” trilogy, especially the playful sax arrangements and swaying rhythms, which instantly recall some Gong classics from that conceptual odyssey. “Relish the Possibility” is a distinctly dreamy and fairly simple psychedelic-rock ballad with a pinch of folk, while “Eternal Hand,” marked mostly by ethereal flute sounds and subtle acoustic guitar passages, closes this excellent album in an unusually melancholic way.
On “Bright Spirit,” Gong prove that the adventurous, unpredictable spirit of their late creator lives on with them and keeps inspiring them. According to Gong mythology, there are still six years to go until planet Gong and Earth end up in the same dimension and ‘align’ into a single celestial body. Let’s hope the Earth is still around in the same shape by then, and that some senile, narcissistic, childish autocrat at the helm of a nuclear superpower doesn’t head off the happy get-together of radio gnomes and earthlings with an apocalypse.
Author: Peter “Dr. ProgRock” Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Dream of Mine (10:32)
2. Mantivule (6:22)
3. The Wonderment (5:11)
4. Stars in Heaven (4:01)
5. Fragrance of Paradise (7:39)
6. Relish the Possibility (3:09)
7. Eternal Hand (6:48)
Lineup:
Fabio Golfetti – guitar
Kavus Torabi – vocals, synthesizers, guitar
Dave Sturt – bass guitar
Ian East – saxophones
Cheb Nettles – percussion
