Verhaal achter de platenhoes - Time is the key (1979) - Pierre Moerlen's Gong
Some people can hear sounds and see colors at the same time. I don't have this ability, but I can imagine it should look like you are punching a gong. I am talking about this cover "Time is the Key" by French drummer Pierre Moerlen of the progrock band Gong and known for his collaboration with Mike Oldfield. Whether he had this gift? No idea. But I do know he is one of the best drummers in the world, as far as I'm concerned. Sadly passed away much too early. In his sleep, at the age of 52.
Strange actually, usually drummers are in the background. It's singers and guitarists about whom most articles are written. But drumming occupies an important space in prog rock music. Playing complex rhythms and at the same time keeping the band together by staying in time steadily, that is the job of drummers such as Bill Bruford, Mick Pointer, Marco Minnemann and Simon Phillips.
For a long time Pierre Moerlen has been the drummer for Gong, a band from the 1970s Canterbury scene. Gong's band members had a thing for France. They performed often in this country and it's how they came into contact with Pierre Moerlen in Paris. He studied percussion at the music college in the French capital. That resulted in a number of beautiful LP's. To me, the album "You" is still one of the best LP's from the Canterbury scene. And after forty years, I still can't get enough of the percussion solo on the album "Gazeuse".
But Gong was also a vulnerable group because of its line-up. In short, it was a bunch of headstrong, drug-using fools together. (I can still see singer Daevid Allan with his gnome hat and CDs around his neck at the Boerderij in 2014). The collaboration did not last long. Pierre Moerlen took the name and formed his own band, including his great love, Mireille Bauer. But she ran off with bassist Francis Moze. Moerlen was left behind, jealous and bitter. Maybe then he saw all kinds of colors when he played his vibraphone. Green and yellow, for example, because he was frustrated immensely. Or did it turn black in front of his eyes?
Heartbreak seems to belong to the music scene. Why aren't musicians just like geese and stick together for life? Anyway, it doesn't matter right now. The advantage is that it produces beautiful music. Moerlen retired to Ireland for a while and made this LP: "Time is the Key". Maybe a somewhat complicated way of saying, time heals all wounds? Anyway, it is another collection of beautiful sounds and rhythms on vibraphone, marimba, gong and drums. (On Mike Oldfield's albums you can also hear these typical Moerlen sounds).
Unfortunately, Pierre Moerlen died early, in 2008, at the age of 52. His last period in life was quite colorless. He had retired to his hometown Colmar where he occasionally gave drum lessons. I don't really know if he ever performed at the Boerderij. His band mates in Gong, singer Daevid Allen and guitarist Allan Holdsworth have also passed away.
Is progrock music slowly dying out and only the albums and beautiful record sleeves remain? Or will a younger generation discover this music and revisit it, just as Bach and Beethoven are still played after 300, 400 years. I hope that a music college student will sign up to perform the percussion solos from "Time is the Key" by Moerlen at the Boerderij, with beautiful lighting from the venue's skilled light technicians.
I can already see all kinds of colors in front of me.
Gerrit-Jan Vrielink
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