Gilgamesh

CD version. Gilgamesh is the 1975 debut of Gilgamesh, the band that keyboardist Alan Gowen put together in 1972. Recorded and mixed at The Manor in May 1975 and issued by Caroline Records, a Virgin label, it runs to under forty minutes. Three suites built from linked short pieces alternate with brief interludes, and Gowen wrote most of the music.

The quartet is Gowen on piano, electric piano, clavinet, synthesizer and Mellotron, Phil Lee on electric, acoustic, twelve-string and classical guitars, Jeff Clyne on double bass and bass guitar, and Mike Travis on drums and percussion. Dave Stewart of Hatfield and the North co-produced with the band, and Steve Cox engineered. The writing is mostly Gowen's. Lee contributed Worlds of Zin and For Absent Friends, Clyne co-wrote Lady and Friend, and Notwithstanding is credited to Gowen, Lee and Steve Cook.

The opening suite runs almost eleven minutes, joining Gowen's One End More and Phil's Little Dance, subtitled For Phil Miller's Trousers, to Lee's Worlds of Zin, where Amanda Parsons adds her voice. Arriving Twice, barely a minute and a half, is given over to Gowen's pianos and synthesizers. The second suite, almost seven minutes, moves from Island of Rhodes through Paper Boat, dedicated to Doris, to As If Your Eyes Were Open. The closing suite ends with Jamo and Other Boating Disasters, sung by Parsons over vocal arrangements by Gowen and Stewart. Between the long pieces sit miniatures: Lee's For Absent Friends lasts just over a minute, and the short piano piece Just C closes the record in under a minute.

Gilgamesh were part of the Canterbury circle, and their link with Stewart went beyond the production. The group later worked closely with Hatfield and the North, and National Health was formed from players of the two bands. A second Gilgamesh album, Another Fine Tune You've Got Me Into, followed in 1978. The debut still divides listeners. Reviewing this reissue for Background Magazine, Cor Smeets found it "too jazzy and too chaotic, aggressive and unpolished" for his own taste, while recommending it to followers of experimental jazz.

Single CD on Esoteric Recordings (ECLEC2242), 2011, licensed from EMI, with 24-bit digital remastering by Paschal Byrne, liner notes by Sid Smith and the original sleeve design by Celia Welcomme.