The Moonlight Orchestra // Traipsing bloom, a drifting, meandering journey of sonic and aural fusion. Intertwining experimentalism, soundscapes, psychedelia, folk, blues, electronica and featuring guest poets: Daevid Allen, John Sinclair, Lee Harris, Youth and Ben River, who also founded The Moonlight Orchestra and co-composed & produced the album over a three year period. The album also features special guest musicians; Founding member of the legendary band Hawkwind, Nik Turner plays saxophone on three of the albums songs, guitarist Paul Bangash plays guitar and other instruments on the album, Georgina Brett provided vocal looping on the album, Producer and musician Darren Moss played keyboard on ‘Thrones made of Crumbs’. Musician and producer Jon Clayton, plays Cello on one of the album’s songs. Bass player Lee James, Guitarist George Hall, Violinist Giorgia Macellari and Drummer Antek Prysbola play on the song ‘North Star’ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DAEVID ALLEN: Daevid Allen an Australian poet, guitarist, singer, composer and performance artist is co-founder of psychedelic rock groups Soft Machine and Gong. In 1960, inspired by the Beat Generation writers he had discovered while working in a Melbourne bookshop, Allen travelled to Paris, where he stayed at the Beat Hotel, moving into a room that had recently been vacated by Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky. While selling the International Herald Tribune around Le Chat Qui Pêche and the Latin Quarter, he met Terry Riley and also gained free access to the jazz clubs in the area. In 1970 Allen recorded and released his first solo album, Banana Moon (sometimes spelled Bananamoon). The album featured Robert Wyatt, among others. In 1971 Gong released Camembert Electrique. They formed somewhat of an anarchist commune in rural France between 1972 and 1974. In 1972 they were joined by electronics musician Tim Blake and later, after signing with Virgin Records, Steve Hillage and Pierre Moerlen joined to record the Radio Gnome Trilogy which consisted of Flying Teapot, Angel’s Egg and You. The Flying Teapot Trilogy (Flying Teapot, Angels Egg and You) was influenced by Russell’s teapot, an idea that is referred to by Allen in his book “Gong Dreaming”. Allen left this incarnation of Gong and recorded three solo albums, Good Morning (1976) and Now Is the Happiest Time of Your Life (1977) and N’existe pas! (1979). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- JOHN SINCLAIR: John Sinclair is an American poet, writer, and political activist from Flint, Michigan. Sinclair’s defining style is jazz poetry. As an emerging young poet in the mid-1960s, Sinclair took on the role of manager for the Detroit rock band MC5. The band’s politically charged music and its Yippie core audience dovetailed with Sinclair’s own radical development. In 1968, while still working with the band, he conspicuously served as a founding member of the White Panther Party, a militantly anti-racist socialist group and counterpart of the Black Panthers. After a series of convictions for possession of marijuana, Sinclair was sentenced to ten years in prison in 1969 after giving two joints to an undercover narcotics officer. John Lennon performed his new song “John Sinclair” on television and recorded it for his next album, Some Time in New York City (1972). With “directness and simplicity”, the lyrics lament Sinclair’s heavy punishment: “They gave him ten for two – what else can the bastards do?” Sinclair eventually left the US and took up residency in Amsterdam. He continues to write and record and, since 2005, hosts a regular broadcast and podcast, The John Sinclair Radio Show. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LEE HARRIS: Lee Harris is a South African writer and performer. He was one of the few white members of the African National Congress, where he helped with the Congress of the People and met Nelson Mandela. He acted with Orson Welles, Dame Flora Robson, wrote for the British underground press including International Times, helped found the Arts Lab and has been an instrumental figure in the British counterculture movement since the seventies when he published Brainstorm Comix and Home Grown magazine. Harris arrived in London, England in 1956. He studied acting at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. In 1960 Harris got a role in the Orson Welles directed Shakespearian adaptation ‘Chimes at Midnight’, in which Welles both acted and directed. Lee Harris’ recent book Echoes of the Underground: A Foot Soldiers Tale is a collection of ‘underground’ writings by Lee Harris, the majority of which were originally published in the ’alternative press’ of the 60s and 70s; International Times, Oz, Home Grown and ‘Other Scenes’. The collection includes writings on the ‘Beat Generation‘, William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, the 60s theatre revolution, and the South African apartheid era. Since the seventies Lee has run the legendary Alchemy Head Shop in the Portobello Road, West London. Then in 2002 he produced the album ‘Alchemy: 30 Years of Counter Culture’ featuring: Youth, Shpongle, JC001 and other guests. Since then in 2009 he also collaborated with Ben River on the album ‘Angel Headed Hip Hop featuring: Howard Marks, Brian Barritt and others. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- YOUTH: Youth is a record producer, poet and a founder member and bassist of Killing Joke. He is a member of The Fireman along with Paul McCartney. He also worked, produced and remixed for other bands including Kate Bush, Pink Floyd, INXS, U2, Guns N’ Roses, Primal Scream, Depeche Mode, Texas, Embrace, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Art of Noise, Zoe, and P.M. Dawn Glover is credited with founding the first psychedelic trance record label, Dragonfly Records. Youth formed other record labels such as Liquid Sound Design and Kamaflage Records. He is most well known for being the bass player in Killing Joke. He is also a member of the band Transmission with Simon Tong of The Verve, Paul Ferguson of Killing Joke and Tim Bran of Dreadzone. On 27 October 2012, during the International Festival of Music Producers and Sound Designers SOUNDEDIT, he received The Man with the Golden Ear Award. In 2013, Glover produced the debut album ‘Collective’ by the DIY indie rock band Echotape followed by Meteorites by Echo and the Bunnymen, and Lion by Peter Murphy, both set for release in 2014. In 2014 Glover produced Culture Club’s new album “Tribes” set for release in early 2015. The new single, “More Than Silence” was released in November 2014. The Book ‘Kommune’, Youths third collection of poetry, prose and illustrations was published in 2010 on Bracket Press and the poem ‘Thrones made of Crumbs’ was recited by youth on the Moonlight Orchestra album ‘Traipsing Bloom’. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Singer, songwriter and poet Ben River, was brought up in West London, Ladbroke Grove and after having played some of the best venues in London, such as 02 Academy, Islington Assembly Hall, The Troubadour and The Water Rats, following UK and European festival dates, radio airplay across the UK, Europe, Australia, USA and a recent supporting slot with BBC award winning duo: Megson, Ben River is now releasing a his EP ‘When The Sun Ate The Moon’. “Ben River, Singer/songwriter & poet playing melodic folk pop, sounding like Rufus Wainwright meets Mumford & Sons meets Tallest Man on Earth.”… BUGBEAR “There is a haunting, dream-like quality to his songs, which can sometimes be reminiscent of Leonard Cohen”…. FOLKSPOT RADIO He founded the Moonlight Orchestra and co-composed, produced and performed on the album ‘Traipsing Bloom’, his work includes music on the satirical BBC animated series Monkey Dust in 2003 and previously producing, composing and performing on the album ‘Angel Headed Hip hop”, which was released in 2009 on Genepool/Universal Music Group. The album was described by Upsetter Magazine as “the 21st century equivalent of the early experiments with beat poetry and improvised Jazz” and the K&C Daily Times said “a heady mix of both spoken word poetry and fractured samples. The album is re-contextualising the beat poets into the modern age”.