While Alan Gowen lived mostly as a musical drifter, his career consisting mostly of one-off projects over his all-too-short life, his deeply jazz-influenced keyboards left a mark on the progressive rock world. Gowen began his career in an array of rock and post-bop jazz groups, but his reputation was set when he joined Afro-rock unit Obsibisa spin-off, Assagai. Shortly after its demise, Gowen formed the grandly orchestral jazz-prog unit Gilgamesh, his most lasting legacy. After creating a spate of short-lived bands, including National Health and Soft Heap, he was diagnosed with leukaemia. His musical epitaph, BEFORE A WORD IS SAID, finished a week before his death at 33, conveyed a majesty and energy belying its somber and rushed occasion.