Bright Spirit marks the third instalment in a trilogy that began with The Universe Also Collapses (2019) and continued with Unending Ascending (2023). Recorded with long-time collaborator Frank Byng in his South London studio, Bright Spirit sees Gong at their experimental best, more adventurous and more open to the dream than ever.
And dreams are central here. Not just as lyrical imagery, but as a way of thinking - where psychedelia, love, and the thin membrane between worlds feed into the music. The opener, ‘Dream Of Mine’, unfurls like a transmission from the inbetween, its mid-section blooming into harmonies and an angular melody that feels like a key turning in a long-awaited lock. Frontman Kavus Torabi describes it as a moment everything has been pointing toward, a flash of clarity inside the swirl.
Elsewhere, there’s tenderness - unexpected perhaps, but unmistakably Gong, ‘Fragrance Of Paradise’ being Torabi’s first-ever love song. ‘The Wonderment’ finds Gong in deeply meditative form, a mystical and explorative journey both inwards and outwards, timeless and expansive, another piece of the kaleidoscopic puzzle that makes up Bright Spirit.
Gong continue to carry the torch first lit by founder Daevid Allen in the late ’60s, having recently completed extensive US and European tours, as well as a UK run with psychedelic legends Henge in late 2025, which will continue in 2026.
Bright Spirit is Gong now: still glowing from the furnace of Daevid Allen’s vision, still mischievous, still tuned to the frequencies between the waking world and whatever sings behind it.
