Moranga

Moranga was formed in 2002 when Cape Town bass player, Paul Opie of Lithium had a dream in which he saw himself, old friend and musical collaborator, Simon Portlock and Alastair Douglas playing together in a free-form style band. Moranga is consists of the three core band members who arrange occasional sessions of extemporizing, inviting other musicians to contribute to the murk that surrounds their seismic rhythm section. The tracks documented on ‘Strawberry’ feature Ramon da Silva and Dan Manojlovic to result in the form of oceanic swells that gradually evolve into warm clouds of guitar drone.

Moranga are primarily a studio band with their release ‘Strawberry’ resulting from their improvisations at SUI studio, Cape Town. ‘Strawberry’ is a monumental collection of post-rock pieces. My World Is Bending gets itself into an early groove only to climax with a swathe of guitar, but the pearl of the album is the 13-minute final track, Some Patrons Run Away Deaf.

All Moranga jams have been completely free of arrangement and planning, instead intuition and acceptance of each other’s ideas sees the band through as well as Moranga enjoy the infinite possibilities that improvised music allows for.

Sessions for the next release are in progress with a couple of tracks already complete, Moranga are preparing for gigs planned for the end of 2007. Who knows what the future will hold for Moranga.