When vocalist and guitarist Mark Graham played a rough demo of his song, Ship of Fools to composer/multi-instrumentalist Andrew Keeling in the summer of 2018, the idea of the Gong Farmers was suddenly born. Together with a chance visit to an Irish castle, where the activities of the medieval gong farmers was described in detail, the band was now named.
LATEST!
Dark Skies - A film by Hugo Mass
Guano Junction
Vista de Toledo
From 2020 – ’21 the band worked on a second album, Guano Junction, continuing both the connective thematic elements and themes of love and loss heard on Ship of Fools yet exploring darker areas of musical and human experience. Featuring David Jackson (Van der Graaf Generator), Alex Che (Modern Eon, Che), Cliff Hewitt (Modern Eon, Apollo 440), Noko 440 (Apollo 440), Martin Walker (Nth Ascension, Thruaglas Darkly), Brian Taylor (This Is Awkward, Thruaglas Darkly) and others, Guano Junction is released by Spaceward on November 5th, 2021.
"A beautifully put-together and subtly varied album", Roots & Fusion.
This single, featuring two songs from the album, is available exclusively for download now.
Very Green
Guano Junction 1
New album 'Guano Junction' - coming this autumn from Spaceward Records
GASP's November Newbies by Steven C. Davis (featuring The Gong Farmers at around 02:04:00)
Roots and Fusion (featuring The Gong Farmers) on Roots and Fusion (16.10.19)
Roots and Fusion (featuring The Gong Farmers) on Roots and Fusion (9.10.19)
George Martin's 'Theme One' slips effortlessly into one of those cool, jazzy Hammond organ things Jimmy Smith used to do, lubricated by Jimmy McGriff groove grease, infiltrating a little 'Sunshine of Your Love' quote in there... and that's just Andrew Keeling's one-minute-and-fifty-six-seconds 'Prolude'. Ship of Fools' title track starts with 'Song For Our Ancestors'' nautical effects, and while the song, rich with metaphor, is pure Mark Graham, the accompaniment flits and flirts in fleet-foot elaborate melanges that incorporate a sax solo from Van der Graaf's David Jackson.
The Gong Farmers have nothing to do with bongs or flying teapots. It's a term for Tudor cesspit operatives! The duo, with friends adding bass, drums and techno loops as required, know what they're about, from Bert Jansch-sharp fingering, on instrumental 'Shamrok', to agile chamber-flute conversations that are both Roland Kirk... and birdsong.
Fluid and literate music, conjuring orchestral textures from small-group formats - is this some kind of free-jazz prog-folk? More likely it's forging its own definition in a 'Strangeland' of their own design Until 'Selling England' full-circles to the 'Prolude'. Scarily impressive. Gong Farmers are heads ahead of most.
Andrew Darlington, RnR.
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