Pre-Order Now
Book
Bleep exclusive
First edition
68pp perfect bound 5x8” paperback
Cover printed on 300gsm recycled silk
100gsm recycled natural paper
Release Date 1st October 2021
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.
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."
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.
