Musician Goa Gil is an icon in Anjuna & Vagator , north Goa. He played rock and roll with the ‘Big dipper band’ & the ‘Anjuna Jam Band’ at the early beach parties in the 70’s (In my B&W portrait of Gil, he holds a calendar from new year’s 1978 party showing the ‘Big dipper band’ in a group photo). Gil had jammed with Goan musicians like his friend the late August Braganza and drummer William D’souza from Mapuca.
The introduction of techno and its techniques to Goa led to what eventually became the Goa Trance style; early pioneers included DJ’s Laurent, Fred Disco, Swiss Rudi, and Goa Gil. Many "parties" (generally similar to raves but with a more mystic flavor, at least in early 1990s) in Goa revolve entirely around this genre of music. In other countries, Goa Trance is also often played at raves, festivals and parties in conjunction with other styles of trance and techno.
Goa parties have a definitive visual aspect - the use of "fluoro" (fluorescent paint) is common on clothing and on decorations such as tapestries. The graphics on these decorations are usually associated with topics such as aliens, Hinduism, other religious (especially eastern) images, mushrooms, shamanistic technology and other psychedelic art. Shrines in front of the DJ stands featuring religious items are also common decorations. Dreadlocked Goa freaks adorned with tattoos, body piercings and freaky party costumes kicked up huge clouds of red dust whilst dancing to psychedelic Goa trance music. Their fashion sense expressed the counterculture that they belonged to.
It was like being ‘Alex in wonderland’, I can still reminisce the trance parties at ‘Disco valley’ in Vagator in the early 90’s with Gil playing his very special Goa psychedelic music.He still continues to play and make music in Goa and all over the world.
After a long wait I finally managed to do the portrait with Gil and Ariane at their house in Anjuna (1st March 2009).
-Alex Fernandes (Goa, 2009) Click to view musicians slide show
(In the photo: Ariane, Dr Albert Hoffman and Gill at a party in Basel next to Dr Hoffmans house. Photo courtesy Goa Gil)
Goa Gil: A Short Biography
Goa Gil is an American-born musician, DJ and ex-party organizer. He is one of the founders of the Goa trance and psytrance movement in electronic dance music.
Gil was born in 1951 and grew up in San Francisco, California. He witnessed the birth of the hippie movement and acid rock, and was involved with ‘The freak collective family Dog’ and the 60’s rock group ‘The Son’s of Champlin’. Feeling that the San Francisco musical scene was falling apart, he left in 1969, going first to Amsterdam and then to India, settling in the hippie Mecca of Goa. On his extensive travels in India he met the ‘Sadhus’ (wandering holy men of India). Gil became himself a Sadhu, Baba Mangalanand, in the order of the Juna Akhara, under the Guru, Mahant Prem Giri Ji Maharaj.
In the mid 70’s, Gil and his friends soon gathered some equipment (at first some of which was rented from August Braganza) and started playing live music all night long on the Goa beaches. During the early 1980s, many Goa hippies were becoming increasingly fascinated with early electronic music groups such as ‘Kraftwerk’ and ‘Front 242’. The mix of outdoor dance parties with Eastern mystical and spiritual overtones came to define the aesthetic of the Goa party movement. For Gil, dance is an active form of meditation and the use of trance music is a way to "redefine the ancient tribal ritual for the 21st century". During the 1990s, the Goa trance movement spread by way of foreign backpackers of various nationalities who attended parties in India. Nowadays, Gil is still based in Goa for several months of the year, and spends the rest of his time travelling and on tour playing at parties all over the world.
Gil’s partner Ariane MacAvoy is herself a child of french goan "hippes". Ariane, who is an excellent djembe player and african dance instructor makes music as “Nimba”. Together Gil and Ariane make music as “The Nommos”.
Goa Gil and Arianes’ CDs are avaliable in India and worldwide on Avatar Records
(http://www.avatar-music.com/artists/artists01.htm)
Visit (http://www.goagil.com) for more information on Gil and Ariane.
The site has a lot of interesting pictures from the 70’s.
