The Psychedelic Path
The Psychedelic Path
Gong alumni Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy are back with a brand-new System 7 album. Flower Of Life offers a fresh new take on their trademark sound and includes contributions from members of The Orb and electropoppers Coldcut. Prog catches up with the duo to discuss their first studio album in 11 years and their transition from Canterbury scene artists to electronic music experimentalists.
Words: Julian Marszalek
System 7 are back online!
Images: Kotaro Manabe
“Some of our fans pushed back and I still get it from some people: ‘What are you doing this dance music rubbish for?’ But a lot of fans from then got it and have made the journey with us.”
Steve Hillage
S teve Hillage has never been one to bask in former glories. From Gong’s lysergic mischief to the sequenced architecture of System 7 and all points in between, his music has never so much changed direction as altered state. The tools and context may evolve, but that psychedelic impulse remains constant. “I’m still the same basic creative being,” he says from his home studio in Somerset. “I still have the same areas of inspiration. And I still have a spiritual attitude to what I’m doing.”
Across from him, Miquette Giraudy adds, “We’ve still got the same VCS3 synth we had in Gong.”
For them, continuity isn’t theoretical; it continues to hum in their circuitry.