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  • The Living City (Live at The Winter Garden 17 September 1989)
    Artist
    Jon Hassell
    ReleaseProduct
    The Living City (Live at The Winter Garden 17 September 1989)
    Label
    Ndeya
    Catalogue Number
    NDEYA8DL
    Release Date
    February 17, 2023

    Bringing the fourth world to our physical domain, Jon Hassell and Brian Eno teamed up for an elaborate and explorative set of performances at the World Financial Center Winter Garden in 1989. Amidst Eno’s “tropical rainforest sound installation” of recordings from Colombia and Japan (inspired by the Aka people of Cameroon) were Hassell and his band, imparting three nights of entrancing, “futuristic sci-fi funk” jams. Such a convergence of musical innovators and ideas must have been a real treasure to witness; now the magic can be rediscovered on this reissue of The Living City.

    A shimmering wall of chirping crickets, distant birds squabbling, and the array of musical fauna played by the band sets the scene. Described as “music made to float [to]”, these performances ride a deep, enchanting groove, depicting rituals under the cloak of night with the whizzing sighs of Hassell’s shapeshifting trumpetry guiding us through the haze. Deft bass plucks drive the instrumentals, and Eno’s live mixing of cut and paste voices and sonic transformations add to the ethereal atmosphere.

    ‘Alchemistry’ continues the mystical vibes with attention grabbing trills, flitting sounds, and watery thunks of tabla, while the ephemeral structures of ‘Mashujaa’ (meaning “heroes” in Swahili) zip and spiral into a dense smokiness. Sauntering organ-like bass drones loom throughout ‘Nightsky’, chimes twinkling like the births of stars, and trumpet howling like hyenas or gushing air currents. It’s a celestial soundbath so immersive that you could easily mistake the audience’s cheers for the sonic creatures scurrying throughout the performance.

    Seemingly existing outside of time and space, The Living City remains totally timeless and transportive over thirty years after its recording.

    Digital Tracklist

  • 189135
  • 189137
  • 189136
  • Further Fictions
    Artist
    Jon Hassell
    ReleaseProduct
    Further Fictions
    Label
    Ndeya
    Catalogue Number
    NDEYA10DL
    Release Date
    February 10, 2023

    Bundles

    Select bundle

    • CD Bundle:

      $30.99

      • Atmospherics Book

      • Further Fictions CD, 2×CD

      Available: March 3, 2023

      Create Gift Voucher Add to Cart

    The Living City

    Bringing the fourth world to our physical domain, Jon Hassell and Brian Eno teamed up for an elaborate and explorative set of performances at the World Financial Center Winter Garden in 1989. Amidst Eno’s “tropical rainforest sound installation” of recordings from Colombia and Japan (inspired by the Aka people of Cameroon) were Hassell and his band, imparting three nights of entrancing, “futuristic sci-fi funk” jams. Such a convergence of musical innovators and ideas must have been a real treasure to witness; now the magic can be rediscovered on this reissue of The Living City.

    A shimmering wall of chirping crickets, distant birds squabbling, and the array of musical fauna played by the band sets the scene. Described as “music made to float [to]”, these performances ride a deep, enchanting groove, depicting rituals under the cloak of night with the whizzing sighs of Hassell’s shapeshifting trumpetry guiding us through the haze. Deft bass plucks drive the instrumentals, and Eno’s live mixing of cut and paste voices and sonic transformations add to the ethereal atmosphere.

    ‘Alchemistry’ continues the mystical vibes with attention grabbing trills, flitting sounds, and watery thunks of tabla, while the ephemeral structures of ‘Mashujaa’ (meaning “heroes” in Swahili) zip and spiral into a dense smokiness. Sauntering organ-like bass drones loom throughout ‘Nightsky’, chimes twinkling like the births of stars, and trumpet howling like hyenas or gushing air currents. It’s a celestial soundbath so immersive that you could easily mistake the audience’s cheers for the sonic creatures scurrying throughout the performance.

    Seemingly existing outside of time and space, The Living City remains totally timeless and transportive over thirty years after its recording.

    Psychogeography

    The bombastic explosions of worldly sounds in Jon Hassell’s City: Works Of Fiction dropped in 1990, depicting an imagined future of thought provoking oxymorons: urban ancients living everywhere and nowhere blasting hypermodern folk hymns from their speakers. Over thirty years later, it still sounds far out yet totally familiar. It was a fruitful time for Hassell, who later drew a map of the city with alternate takes, demos, and studio jams in the form of Psychogeography, released in 2014 and reissued here in all its glory.

    Charting this oneiric metropolis, Hassell and co wander aimlessly through sonic highways where global architectures meld seamlessly together. “Psychogeography” stems from Situationist philosophy, where one disregards the designed layout of a city and instead moves through its “zones of feeling”. Combined with Hassell’s fourth world concepts, this companion album to his 1990 epic forms an even deeper melting pot of times, spaces, moods, and places, drifting through hypnagogic ambience and electrified sensory overloads.

    ‘Aerial View’ conveys a vastness with its windily morphing passages, overlooking the kaleidoscope of sounds to come: from the nocturnal dub of ‘Neon Night (Rain)’ to the maximalist whirlwind bop of ‘Cityism Superdub’, a landslide of fuzz and wah. ‘Freeway’ portrays the rhythmic chugging of vehicles and the soporific feeling of long, long drives, “a blur of taillights” drawn in sunset coloured chords. The abstracted jazz visions of Hassell’s signature trumpets on ‘Waterfront District’ go from foggy murmurs to forceful yodels in seconds, while the gnashing drums, blues inspired guitars, and “limping bass groove” on ‘Favela’ wouldn’t be out of place in the most experimental of grunge jams.

    Fusing infinite influences, Psychogeography is a necessity for anyone looking to broaden their musical horizons.

    Digital Tracklist

    Disc 1

    1. 1 Ituri 10:45 Buy

      Ituri

    2. 2 Alchemistry 9:43 Buy

      Alchemistry

    3. 3 Adedara Rising 10:14 Buy

      Adedara Rising

    4. 4 Mashujaa 13:32 Buy

      Mashujaa

    5. 5 Paradise Now 5:01 Buy

      Paradise Now

    6. 6 Nightsky 18:38 Buy

      Nightsky

    Disc 2

    1. 1 Aerial View 2:33 Buy

      Aerial View

    2. 2 Neon Night (Rain) 5:20 Buy

      Neon Night (Rain)

    3. 3 Cityism Superdub 4:34 Buy

      Cityism Superdub

    4. 4 Harambe 3:46 Buy

      Harambe

    5. 5 Freeway 4:49 Buy

      Freeway

    6. 6 Cuba Libre 3:28 Buy

      Cuba Libre

    7. 7 Midnight 0:29 Buy

      Midnight

    8. 8 Waterfront District 5:22 Buy

      Waterfront District

    9. 9 Favela 5:55 Buy

      Favela

    10. 10 Emerald City 5:08 Buy

      Emerald City

    Show All Tracks 17
  • Atmospherics
    Artist
    Jon Hassell
    Merch
    Atmospherics
    Label
    Ndeya
    Release Date
    October 1, 2021

    Bundles

    Select bundle

    • CD Bundle:

      $30.99

      • Atmospherics Book

      • Further Fictions CD, 2×CD

      Available: February 17, 2023

      Create Gift Voucher Add to Cart

    • Book

      $19.49
      Create Gift Voucher Add to Cart
      Read More
      • Bleep retail exclusive
      • Second edition
      • New artwork
      • 68pp perfect bound 5x8” paperback
      • Cover printed on 250gsm recycled silk
      • 100gsm recycled natural paper

    A special first edition of a publication containing Jon Hassell’s writing about his own music, a series of diary like entries spanning a period of over thirty years presented as a 68 page 5 x 8” perfect bound volume on recycled paper stock throughout, is now available for pre-order via Bleep, with all label profits going to the gofundme set-up by friends and family to help pay for Jon’s medical care in the final twelve months of his life. Now that Jon is sadly no longer with us, his family intends to use the funds to allow the tremendous personal archive of his music, much unreleased, to be preserved and shared with the world. They also hope to provide philanthropic gifts of scholarship and contributions to issues close to Jon’s heart, such as supporting the working rights of musicians.

    Atmospherics includes essays and notes about the albums Vernal Equinox, Earthquake Island, Possible Musics, Dream Theory In Malaya, Aka-Dabari-Java, City: Works Of Fiction, Fascinoma, Maarifa Street and Listening To Pictures.

    Jon Hassell passed away at the age of 84 on 26 June 2021, leaving behind a significant legacy of highly influential music and art created over his lifetime. Beyond the numerous recording sessions and live concert performances that Jon participated in, he also wrote a number of diary-like vignettes for the various iterations of his website, which he dubbed Atmospherics—“In trying to fully understand anyone, or anything, I’ve always wanted to get a feel for the physical and psychic landscape of the time: what kind of light was in the room or in the forest, what sounds and smells were in the air, what families and friends looked like, whether there were animals and children around, what were they eating, what was funny, what was sexy, what was sad—in other words, the ‘atmospherics’ of a situation.”

    Ndeya, the imprint set up in partnership with Warp Records as a home for Jon’s music, was working with him in the past year on a print publication of this writing. It has been designed by Collin Fletcher who worked on some of the creative for Jon’s final studio album Seeing Through Sound (released in 2020), and edited with assistance from Jon’s longtime friend Robert Walsh. Fletcher comments: “It was an honor to work on this book for Jon, especially having received his input in the early stages of the design. As a longtime fan, I’ve seen the influence his art and experimentalism has had on both popular and progressive music culture. I’m endlessly grateful for the opportunity to help share his life and work through his own words with Atmospherics. It's an incredible insight into the mind of Fourth World music, for both longtime followers and those who are just now discovering Jon's music."

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