Search - Jon Hassell, Brian Eno :: Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics

Beautiful, Chilling, Subliminal Psychedelia

Solo Goodspeed | Granada Hills, CA United States | 04/27/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Over a background of sonic loops by Eno and gently pulsating percussives, the wailing, harmonized flugelhorn of Jon Hassel brings to mind some kind of animal transforming into a human. The effect produced by this semi-ambient collection of instrumentals may seem strange and alien to western ears at first, but upon repeated listenings becomes sensually soothing, and works both in a capacity of background or meditation music to get lost in. Hassel's unique style emphasizes both the importance of notes and breath sounds, and truly gives his instrument a life of its own.Fourth World Vol 1 (where are the others???) treads a line between jazz, ambent and eastern devotional music, finding its own niche in the course of listening. Of special note is the final track, "Charm (over Burundi Cloud)", clocking in at 21:29 and could have been longer if not for the limitations of vinyl production at the time of the original's release. One wonders if the original sessions of Possible Musics could be made available ...... my only criticism of this package being that it seems like more of a sampler, a teasing taste, of all that it could be.* solo *"

Two masters in a perfect collaboration

thebigear | Seattle, Wa. USA | 01/17/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I don't think I've listened any one album more than I have Possible Musics. I couldn't live without it. It's dreamy, earthy, soothing, evocative, shamanistic and very organic. It's power is extra-musical. You can listen to it deeply with headphones, or just catch a hint of it from another room and it's somehow just as rewarding. It really perfumes the air like no other music I've heard before, which to me, kind of makes it THE ultimate ambient album. Jon Hassel brings his stunningly gorgeous trumpet playing and his notions of Fourth-World, a kind of ethereal pan-exoticism that encompases everything from raga to "Caravan," together with Eno's meterological synth textures for a perfect collaboration. The two masters mind-meld to form suggestive sonic landscapes that turn your imagination all the way on. 100% non-superficial music that strokes the very soul."

Levantine modernism

DAC Crowell | 04/04/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This thing is just brilliant, really. It should be noted that this release dates from around the same period as Eno's collaboration with David Byrne, "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts", and it shares a lot of the Africanisms and Arabicisms found on that release, but pulls in a much stronger amount of Eno's ambient sensibilities in the process of execution. The result is a hard-to-describe album, sounding much like a soundtrack for some film montage of out-of-focus African filmshots that jump back and forth from Zaire to Morocco to Mali to Tanzania with a Stan Brakhage-like illogic. The masterpiece here is "Charm (over 'Burundi Cloud')", which ranks with Eno's second collaboration with Robert Fripp, "Evening Star", in terms of its beauty and power, yet simplicity. Important both as ambient and as 'world music', as this does a better job of evoking some other locales than so much of that hackneyed 'world' product that's out these days."