A strictly
ambient
, drummerless set, 1990's
Stroking the Tail of the Bird
is like an hours' worth of purified essence of
Gong
, lacking the forced attempts at conceptual structure and bouts of
prog rock
noodling that littered the band's '70s albums. Recorded by
Daevid Allen
on his trademark glissando guitar with former
associates
Harry Williamson
on keyboards and
Gilli Smyth
on wordless "space whisper" vocals, these five lengthy tracks are pure ambience, with minimalist layers of sound rippling through an otherwise empty soundscape. In other words, think
Brian Eno
, not
the Orb
, but next to the ultra-sparse, at times nearly silent
, even albums like
Music for Airports
or
Thursday Afternoon
sound gussied-up and busy. Most impressively, the
Voiceprint
reissue from 1999 adds a previously unreleased ten-minute meditation called
"Deep Sea"
that was recorded by
Allen
,
Williamson
, and
Smyth
in 1975 (!!), but sounds like it came from these very sessions. ~ Stewart Mason