Shamal

Shamal is an album by Gong, originally released in early 1976. The album was written and recorded without the group's founder member Daevid Allen, and consequently sounds different with none of the hippy flavoured eccentricities of the previous albums. However, it still has a generally progressive rock-influenced approach, slowly drifting into a jazz fusion sound. It is usually regarded as a transitional album between Daevid Allen's incarnation of the band and the Pierre Moerlen-led fusion lineup of the late 1970s. The album was produced by Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason. The production values of the recording were superbly engineered under Mason's watchful eye. The album was a favorite on the turntables of many audiophiles of the time.