Pierre Moerlen (23 October 1952,

Colmar Colmar (; ; or ) is a city and commune in the Haut-Rhin department and Alsace region of north-eastern France. The third-largest commune in Alsace (after Strasbourg and Mulhouse), it is the seat of the prefecture of the Haut-Rhin department ...

, Haut-Rhin – 3 May 2005, Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, near

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

) was a French drummer and percussionist, best known for his work with

Gong A gongFrom Indonesian language, Indonesian and ; ; zh, c=鑼, p=luó; ; ; ; ; is a percussion instrument originating from Southeast Asia, and used widely in Southeast Asian and East Asian musical traditions. Gongs are made of metal and ...

and

Mike Oldfield Michael Gordon Oldfield (born 15 May 1953) is an English retired musician, songwriter and producer best known for his debut studio album ''Tubular Bells'' (1973), which became an unexpected critical and commercial success. Though primarily a gu ...

and as

Pierre Moerlen's Gong Pierre Moerlen's Gong was an instrumental jazz fusion band led by French drummer Pierre Moerlen which developed as an offshoot of the Canterbury scene band Gong founded and led by Daevid Allen. It was notable for the prominent use of mallet p ...

Biography

Pierre Moerlen was born in

(

Haut-Rhin Haut-Rhin (); Alsatian: ''Owerelsàss'' or '; , . is a department in the Grand Est region, France, bordering both Germany and Switzerland. It is named after the river Rhine; its name means Upper Rhine. Haut-Rhin is the smaller and less pop ...

) on 23 October 1952, third of five children. His father was an organist and his mother was a music teacher. All five siblings learned music with their parents and all became musicians. Pierre's younger brother, Benoît Moerlen, is also a percussionist (he also worked with Gong and

). Pierre left Colmar for Strasbourg to learn percussion with Jean Batigne, founder of Les Percussions de Strasbourg. He was also a member of two rock and rock-jazz bands, including Hasm Congélateur (with included future

Magma Magma () is the molten or semi-molten natural material from which all igneous rocks are formed. Magma (sometimes colloquially but incorrectly referred to as ''lava'') is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and evidence of magmatism has also ...

guitarist Gabriel Federow), whose most notable performance was the opening slot at the Seloncourt Festival in September 1972, headlined by Ange,

Genesis Genesis may refer to: Religion * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of humankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Bo ...

and

Robert Wyatt Robert Wyatt (born Robert Wyatt-Ellidge, 28 January 1945) is an English retired musician. A founding member of the influential Canterbury scene bands Soft Machine and Matching Mole, he was initially a kit drummer and singer before becoming para ...

's Matching Mole. In January 1973, Moerlen joined Daevid Allen's

, debuting on the '' Angel's Egg'' (1973) album. In June 1973 he was asked by

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a British record label owned by Universal Music Group. They were originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), ...

's boss

Richard Branson Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is an English business magnate who co-founded the Virgin Group in 1970, and controlled 5 companies remaining of once more than 400. Branson expressed his desire to become an entrepreneu ...

to play percussion with

for the premiere of ''

Tubular Bells Tubular bells (also known as chimes) are musical instruments in the Percussion instrument, percussion family. Their sound resembles that of church bells, carillons, or a bell tower; the original tubular bells were made to duplicate the soun ...

'' (1973), to replace the incapacitated

Steve Hillage Stephen Simpson Hillage (born 2 August 1951) is an English musician, best known as a guitarist. He is associated with the Canterbury scene and has worked in experimental domains since the late 1960s. Besides his solo sound recording and reprodu ...

, guitar player of Gong, also took part. Between 1975-87, beginning with ''

Ommadawn ''Ommadawn'' is the third studio album by English musician, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Mike Oldfield, released on 7 November 1975 on Virgin Records. ''Ommadawn'' peaked at No. 4 on the UK Albums Chart, No. 74 in Canada, and No. 146 on ...

'' (1975), Moerlen would be Oldfield's percussionist of choice for his albums and his tours. Moerlen left and returned to Gong several times to tour with Les Percussions de Strasbourg (he created with them '' Musik im Bauch'' by

Karlheinz Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groun ...

and ''Hiérophonie V'' by Yoshihisa Taïra at Festival international d'art contemporain de Royan, 1975), and although he recorded ''

You In Modern English, the word "''you''" is the second-person pronoun. It is grammatically plural, and was historically used only for the dative case, but in most modern dialects is used for all cases and numbers. History ''You'' comes from ...

'' (1974) he left just before the tour promoting that album began. In the summer of 1975, by which time band founder, Daevid Allen, had left, he was asked to return to co-lead the band with

Didier Malherbe Didier Malherbe (born 22 January 1943) is a French jazz, rock, and world music musician and poet. He is a member of the bands Gong and Hadouk. He plays the saxophone, flute, alto clarinet, ocarina, Laotian Khen, Bawu flute, Hulusi, and ma ...

and Steve Hillage, who himself left shortly thereafter, only appearing on a couple of tracks on the next album '' Shamal'' (1976). Another series of line-up changes resulted in the ''

Gazeuse! ''Gazeuse!'' ( French for 'Sparkling!', 'Fizzy!' or 'Effervescent!') is the seventh album released under the name Gong and the ''de facto'' debut album by Pierre Moerlen's Gong. It was released in late 1976. The title was changed to ''Expresso'' ...

'' (1976) album (released as ''Expresso'' in the US) with

Allan Holdsworth Allan Holdsworth (6 August 1946 – 15 April 2017) was a British jazz and rock music, rock guitarist, violinist and composer. He contributed to numerous bands, including Soft Machine, U.K. (band), U.K., The Tony Williams Lifetime, Pierre Moerl ...

on guitar, following which Malherbe left, leaving Moerlen as the only link with the "classic" Gong line-up. He retained the name for the next album, '' Expresso II'' (1978), but to avoid confusion the band's concerts were often announced as Gong-Expresso. Since this wasn't clear enough, the name Pierre Moerlen's Gong (PMG) was used from 1978 onwards. At this point the band – which included American musicians Bon Lozaga (guitar) and Hansford Rowe (bass) – were playing

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as jazz rock, jazz-rock fusion, or simply fusion) is a popular music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric gui ...

rather than the

Canterbury scene The Canterbury scene (or Canterbury sound) is a musical scene that originated in the city of Canterbury, Kent, England during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Associated with progressive rock, the term describes a loosely-defined, improvisation ...

-influenced psychedelia of old. In 1978, PMG were released from the Virgin contract, and signed with Arista, releasing '' Downwind'' (1979), '' Time is the Key'' (1979), '' Pierre Moerlen's Gong Live'' (1980) and '' Leave It Open'' (1980). During this period, Moerlen regularly toured internationally with Mike Oldfield. PMG ceased operations in 1981 following tours of North America and Europe in late 1980. Later that year, Moerlen briefly joined

as second drummer. Following Mike Oldfield's 10th Anniversary tour in 1983, he joined the Swedish progressive/symphonic band

Tribute A tribute (; from Latin ''tributum'', "contribution") is wealth, often in kind, that a party gives to another as a sign of submission, allegiance or respect. Various ancient states exacted tribute from the rulers of lands which the state con ...

(1985–87). PMG reformed for two albums and tours in the late 1980s. After spending several years as orchestra pit musician for various musicals, he returned to active service in 1997 when he joined the British jazz-rock outfit

Brand X Brand X were a British jazz rock band formed in London in 1974. They were initially active until 1980, followed by reformations between 1992–1999 and 2016–2021. Despite sometimes being considered to be a Phil Collins side project (due t ...

for international touring in 1997. Later that year, he was asked to rejoin Gong, and toured with the band until 1999. He then concentrated on putting together a new PMG line-up and repertoire, which resulted in the studio album '' Pentanine'' (2004), recorded in Moscow in 2002.

Death

Pierre Moerlen died unexpectedly in his sleep of natural causes on 3 May 2005, aged 52. At the time of his death he was rehearsing with a new incarnation of

Discography

With Gong

* 1973: '' Angel's Egg'' (Radio Gnome trilogy, part 2) * 1974: ''

'' (Radio Gnome trilogy, part 3) * 1976: '' Shamal'' * 1977: '' Gong est Mort, Vive Gong'' (French live album) * 1977: '' Gong Live Etc'' (UK live album)

With Paragong

* 1995: ''Live '73'' (live album recorded in Spring 1973 in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

)

With Pierre Moerlen's Gong

* 1976: ''

'' (''Expresso'' in North America) (issued as a "Gong" album) * 1978: '' Expresso II'' (issued as a "Gong" album) * 1979: '' Downwind'' * 1979: '' Time is the Key'' * 1980: ''Pierre Moerlen's Gong Live'' * 1981: '' Leave It Open'' * 1986: ''Breakthrough'' * 1988: ''Second Wind'' * 1998: ''Full Circle Live '88'' * 2004: '' Pentanine''

With Mike Oldfield

* 1975: ''

'' * 1978: '' Incantations'' * 1979: ''

Exposed Expose, exposé, or exposed may refer to: News sources * Exposé (journalism), a form of investigative journalism * '' The Exposé'', a British conspiracist website * '' Exeposé'', a student-run newspaper of the University of Exeter Film and TV ...

'' * 1979: ''

Platinum Platinum is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a density, dense, malleable, ductility, ductile, highly unreactive, precious metal, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name origina ...

'' * 1983: ''

Crises A crisis (: crises; : critical) is any event or period that will lead to an unstable and dangerous situation affecting an individual, group, or all of society. Crises are negative changes in the human or environmental affairs, especially when ...

'' * 1985: '' The Complete Mike Oldfield'' * 1987: ''

Islands This is a list of the lists of islands in the world grouped by country, by continent, by body of water, and by other classifications. For rank-order lists, see the #Other lists of islands, other lists of islands below. Lists of islands by count ...

'' In November 1973, Moerlen participated in a live-in-the-studio performance of

's ''

'' for the BBC. ideo not available/ref> It is available on Oldfield's '' Elements'' DVD.

With others

* 1975:

– ''

Fish Rising ''Fish Rising'' is the debut solo album by English progressive rock musician Steve Hillage, released by Virgin Records in April 1975 in music, 1975. It was recorded just prior to Hillage's departure from the band Gong (band), Gong. Background St ...

'' * 1975: Slapp Happy – '' Desperate Straights'' * 1977: Pekka Pohjola – '' Mathematician's Air Display'' * 1979:

Mick Taylor Michael Kevin Taylor (born 17 January 1949) is an English guitarist, best known as a former member of John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers (1967–1969) and the Rolling Stones (1969–1974). As a member of the Stones, h ...

– ''

'' * 1980:

Sally Oldfield Sally Patricia Oldfield (born 3 August 1947) is an English singer-songwriter. She is the sister of composers Mike and Terry Oldfield. Early life Born in Dublin, Ireland, Oldfield was raised in the Roman Catholic faith of her mother, Maureen ...

– ''Celebration'' * 1982: Philip Lynott – '' The Philip Lynott Album'' * 1983:

– ''Strange Day in Berlin'' * 1983: Jean-Yves Lievaux – ''Transformances'' * 1985:

– ''Breaking Barriers'' * 1988: Biréli Lagrène – ''Inferno'' * 1995: Project Lo – ''Dabblings in the Darkness''

References

External links

Pierre Moerlen biography
at Calyx, the 'Canterbury Website'

at Calyx
Pierre Moerlen's Gong discography and album reviews, credits & releases
at AllMusic.com
Pierre Moerlen's chronologic appearances & credits on different albums
at Discogs.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Moerlen, Pierre 1952 births 2005 deaths People from Colmar Musicians from Haut-Rhin Jazz fusion drummers Canterbury scene French jazz drummers French male drummers 20th-century French musicians 20th-century drummers Gong (band) members 20th-century French male musicians French male jazz musicians Brand X members