Made out of bits of comet and whalebone
Biography
Comprised of a group of established Pan Welsh French musicians (including Des Davies of the Lo-Fidelity Allstars) with a passion for Rapa Nui stone heads & dragons. Traditional tradesmen and arthouse web designers by day, astounding musos by nightfall, their hypnotic and metamorphic psychedelic ‘rock’ described by the band themselves as the “sound of a dragon colliding with an asteroid”, by Stuart Maconie (BBC 6Music’s Freak Zone ) as ‘Cambrian Psychedelia’ & Bethan Elfyn (BBC R Wales) as “big & boisterous”, has indeed plenty of Devonian old red sandstone within. There is also, if you know where to find it, gneiss…
What are the origins of Moon Goose?
‘Moon Goose’ refers to the upper level of a hay barn in west Herefordshire which emits music across the old borderlands each week, usually on a Thursday evening.
Its origins can be found, using the correct equipment, from sources such as the Rapa Nui stone heads, and dragons. The music of Moon Goose was referred to by Stuart Maconie on BBC 6 Music’s Freak Zone as ‘Cambrian psychedelia’, a reasonable description due to the happy combination of geology and consciousness. There is plenty of Devonian old red sandstone in the music. There is also, if you know where to find it, gneiss.
Well, the essence of these archaic sources is channelled – by the shiplike oaken timbers of the barn, and by the many hundreds of records that line its walls, and by the casual piles of vintage music technology that line the floor – through the bodies of the five human musical operators who represent Moon Goose in this dimension, and into strange sonic shapes.
What are the influences of Moon Goose?
Musical influences include, for example, Tibetan chanting monks, Can, and Bronski Beat. Beyond that, it is fair to say that the entire universe influences Moon Goose in one way or another. And in a strange additional twist, Moon Goose is partly influenced by events that have not yet happened. It can thus be seen as music for the Ecozoic era.
What are Moon Goose’s plans for 2019?
Most things happen without a huge amount of forward planning, when it comes to the Goose, so it’s hard to say exactly what the year has in store. However, 2019 gigs are confirmed in a range of locations including Cardiff; a secret festival on the border of England and Wales; London; and Cardigan. Other gigs are under discussion for Nottingham; Oxford; and New Radnor. Moon Goose has also started work on a second album, which ideally would be released before the first one, but that appears unlikely.
What can you tell us about the album Source Code?
Although concept albums were declared extinct some time during 1977, the source code that gave the album its title literally floated across from the Great Pyramids of Giza one hot afternoon in late 2018. That Cairo day, 20% of the band was slumped, exhausted, in the garden of the Marriott Hotel that overlooks those fine alien structures. At some point during that jetlagged and disembodied afternoon, with the security situation looking tense, the four lines of source code found themselves being written down.
The source code has been translated into a representative sample of the world’s 7000 or so languages but Moon Goose very much welcomes further interpretations, preferably in the world’s most endangered tongues. Please send them by post, care of Keith at Fruits de Mer.
The source code can be used, among other things, as lyrics for the twelve instrumental tracks that populate the vinyl, one line of code per side of vinyl, just add your own melodies.
The source code also helped to uncover a poem by Charles Causley, called ‘I am the song’, in whose beauty and back-to-frontness the flapping spirit of the Goose can clearly be found.
Incidentally, although no birds were deliberately harmed during the making of Source Code, Moon Goose would like to extend its sorrowful respects to the mother goose who was fatally driven over by one of the guitar operators, shortly after the album was sent off for vinyl mastering. Don’t worry, mother, you did not die in vain!
Quotes
- “What an epic sound!”
- “Spacemen 3 meets Hawkwind in a ramshackle merging of otherworldliness.”
- “The soundtrack to a runaway space train hurtling through unnamed interstellar stations”
- “I have a feeling that Source Code will be one of my favourite albums released in 2019.”
- “A Sky-scraping double album that relentlessly takes the guitar instrumental format intro fresh anarchic orbits.”
- “Genius!”
- “My consciousness has been raised”
- “Cambrian Psychedelia”
- “Dark, brilliant, mystical.”
- “Big and boisterous”
- “Succinct, melodic, and tighter than a nun’s ass”
- “As if early Iron Butterfly collided with Hawkwind in a Martian Motorway Café.”
Photos
Click on the photos to get a bigger version. Contact us if you need full HD photos for print.
Studio Photos by Billie Charity.
Live photos by Dean Forrest Photography.
