Label: Intuition
Katalog Nr. INT 30041
Release: 08.12. 2023
UPC: 750447300415
Format: CD
Vertrieb: edel Kultur
LC: 08399

Jon Hassell: trumpet, keyboards / J.A. Deane: electric & acoustic percussion / Jean-Philippe Rykiel: synthesizer / Richard Horowitz: synthesizer / Michael Brooks: guitar

Side A:

Ravinia/Vancouver
Paris I

Side B:

Hamburg
Brussels
Paris II

The label INTUITION, known since the 1980s, is releasing its most important and successful back catalogue titles on vinyl under the name „INTUITION Master Series“. Albums by bands and artists such as Steps Ahead, Jon Hassell, Eddie Palmieri, Oregon, Stephan Micus, Don Cherry, Abdullah Ibrahim, Barbara Thompson, Marilyn Mazur, Joe Zawinul, Maceo Parker, Charlie Mariano, Dino Saluzzi, Joey Baron, Lounge Lizards are lavishly remastered and re-released on vinyl (180-gram pressing) in a high-quality presentation. Other albums not previously released on INTUITION will also be given a home on the renowned label and released on vinyl in the future, such as „Flamma Flamma“ by Nicholas Lens or „Say Yes“ by Iyeoka.

The „INTUITION Master Series“ kicks off with Jon Hassell’s legendary album „The Surgeon of the Nightsky Restores Dead Things by the Power of Sound“.

The American trumpeter and multi-instrumentalist Jon Hassell, who died in 2021, was actually an international legend – and then again, he wasn’t, because he never managed a massive breakthrough, but this was mainly due to the fact that he almost completely denied himself to the public. Jon Hassell was a musical visionary and pioneer, one who was inspired by sounds, ambient and new music. He appreciated the music of avant-gardists such as Stockhausen, in whose Cologne school he also trained. He came into contact with Terry Riley and his minimal music early on and played on his first albums. Hassell was also a musically driven person, someone who had to get to the bottom of styles. Thus, he was intensively involved with Far Eastern, but especially Indian music. Using the ingredients he learned, he created a completely new way of playing on and with the trumpet. He created language-like modulated air currents flowing through the instrument to produce seemingly alien, microtonal sounds. He combined this technique with ethnic polyrhythms, electronic alienation, soundscapes and jazz to create his own style, which he called „Fourth World“.

„We have this huge difference between the technically advanced ’northern‘ countries (First World) and the underdeveloped ’southern‘ countries (Third World). And clearly the future is going to develop as a hybrid, a mixture of the two. Fourth World Music‘ means combining the best of the old with the best of the new. But don’t forget the old. Don’t overlook the value of tradition.“

With this kind of music, he significantly influenced numerous styles in the making, such as world music, nujazz or ambient. It is no mistake to say that without Hassell’s ideas, these types of music would have taken a different course.The list of influenced musicians and producers is long, starting with Brian Eno, who further developed his ambient concept as well as the multi-rhythmic approach after working with him. Eno passed the latter on to David Byrne (Talking Heads). The melancholic solo works of David Sylvian were created after a joint project (Brilliant Trees). Hassell also appears on Peter Gabriel’s masterpiece „The Last Temptation of Christ“, and Gabriel admits that it was through this work that he really developed his own world music concept. In nujazz, too, he has decisively influenced musicians like Nils Petter Molvaer or Erik Truffaz. Without Hassell’s pioneering deeds, legendary albums like „Khmer“ would probably not have existed. Hassell’s influence on the music world cannot be overestimated, even if he himself was always unimpressed by the praise.

„It’s the invisible things that buzz around us. You just have to bring them to light and make them visible.“

INTUITION’s 1987 The Surgeon of the Nightsky Restores Dead Things by the Power of Sound is one of his best works in the catalogue. In the tried and tested association with Brian Eno as producer, his first completely live-recorded album was released at that time. The individual pieces, which were recorded in Paris, Vancouver, Hamburg and Brussels, reflect the special atmosphere that made every (rare) Jon Hassell concert something extraordinary. The extremely delicate preparation and post-processing of the live material in the studio mix also makes it clear to the listener what subtle means Jon Hassell used to captivate his audience. In interaction with the audience, Hassell opens a window to the understanding of a music whose pulse and mood can be heard and perceived simultaneously in New York, Rangoon, Maracaibo, Paris, Palembang or Cologne. This album is an absolute work of sound art, or as one listener once put it:

„An album with almost tender percussion and floating, artfully sprinkled synthesizer sounds and accompanied by an electronically alienated trumpet that is mysteriously bizarre and at the same time unspeakably gentle and soft – somehow beyond space and time.“