Fifteen steps into the Fourth World is an exploration of the work of Jon Hassell that stretches across a landscape spanning five decades.
Having studied under Karl Heinz Stockhausen alongside members of Can, Jon Hassell's first recordings took place as part of the NYC minimalism masterpieces In C by Terry Riley and as a part of La Monte Young's Dream House 78' 17". Throughout the 1970's Hassell started to explore new avenues of the burgeon ambient scene of which himself and his sometime collaborator Brian Eno were at the forefront of. Throughout the 1980's Jon Hassell played on legendary recordings by punk-funk no wave pioneers Talking Heads, contributed the aquatic drones that made the nightside of Eno's Ambient 4: On Land. And found time to lend his swirling session notes to odd-ball pop records from David Sylvian, Lloyd Cole & The Commotions and Peter Gabriel. By the 1990's Jon Hassell was widely considered a household name within the avant-garde, in this decade he contributed to JK Flesh and The Bug's illbient electronic project Techno Animal, David Toop's Virgin sponsored Ambient series entry Pink Noir and the post-Basic Channel dub techno of Baaba Mal.
Onto the present day and Jon Hassell presents his first album in nine years: Listening To Pictures' (Pentimento Volume One) released on his freshly founded label Ndeya. A platform set up by Jon to explore the outer reaches of his Fourth World sound and also to act as a vehicle that will venture far beyond its borders.
