Last Night the Moon Came - A Tribute to Jon Hassell

 

Last year we lost Harold Budd. And now, just six months later, we lose another icon in Jon Hassell. 

It's nearly impossible to overstate his importance in shaping an entirely new sound, what he would call Fourth World music. His music has influenced scores of musicians and listeners. I've included a lot of Hassell's music in mixes over the years. And, considering he just released a fine album last year, I expected to be featuring his music in mixes for many more years.

This mix is not an overview of his career. It's a collection of tracks that fit together well, starting with a track from the little known Million Dollar Hotel soundtrack, all the way to the final track, Last Night the Moon Came, which sounds like a good finishing cut.

I wish I could say something eloquent or profound about Jon Hassell and his music, but I'm not that type of writer. I let the music speak for itself and, wow, did his music speak to me and many others. I will miss him. 

Thanks for all your great music, Jon.

[ s t r e a m ]    [ d o w n l o a d ]    [ i t u n e s ]

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Jon Hassell Gregg Arreguin Jamie Muhoberac Peter Freeman - AM (The Million Dollar Hotel 200)
• 05:52    Brian Eno & Jon Hassell - Chemisty (Fourth World 1 Possible Musics 1980)
• 11:06    Jon Hassell - Cool Down Coda (Seeing Through Sound 2020)
• 12:25    Jon Hassell - Empire I (Aka/Darbari/Java - Magic Realism 1982)
• 13:52    Jon Hassell - Sundown Dance (Earthquake Island 1979)
• 18:09    Jon Hassell - Air (Power Spot 1986)
• 23:09    Jon Hassell - Malay (Dream Theory In Malaya 1981)
• 29:36    Jon Hassell - Out of Adedara (City: Works of Fiction 1990)
• 33:55    Jon Hassell - Map of Dusk (Myths 3 1987)
• 35:10    Jon Hassell - Timeless (Seeing Through Sound 2020)
• 42:44    Jon Hassell - Maarifa Street (Maarifa Street: Magic Realism, Vol. 2 2005)
• 49:32    Jon Hassell - These Times (Dream Theory In Malaya 1981)
• 51:23    Jon Hassell - Last Hight the Moon Came (Last Night The Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes In The Street 2009)
• 62:15    end

The Cloud Appreciation Society

 

I recently read an article in the New York Times that was published in 2016 about an unlikely collection of admirers. A group that started back in 2004 to sing the praises of...clouds. These devotees are known as "The Cloud Appreciation Society."

Here's a link to the NYT article... https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/magazine/the-amateur-cloud-society-that-sort-of-rattled-the-scientific-community.html

And the society... https://cloudappreciationsociety.org/

The name of the group stuck in my head as a possible theme and title for a mix. So here it is, a cloud themed mix. All the tracks have the word "cloud" in their titles. The music is appropriately drifting and relaxing. All the tunes are relatively new except for a few tracks from 2008, 2014, 2015 and one which reaches back to a Folkways record from 1981.

Look up, admire the clouds drifting by and float away with this mix.

Cheers!

[ s t r e a m ]    [ d o w n l o a d ]    [ i t u n e s ]

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Andrew Chalk - From Mountain Tops the Dusky Clouds (Incidental Music 2020)
• 05:05    Marine Eyes - Cloud Collecting (idyll 2021)
• 09:18    Max Richter – Shimmering Clouds (My Brilliant Friend 2018)
• 10:20    Craig Kupka - Clouds 2 (Clouds: Music for Relaxation 1981)
• 15:20    Gaussian Curve – Broken Clouds (Clouds 2014)
• 20:05    Clariloops – Clouds (Sun//Rain 2021)
• 23:34    Yui Onodera & Vadim Bondarenko - Cloudscape 8 (Cloudscapes 2015)
• 27:00    Shuta Yasukochi – Clouds (Slow sketch vol. 1: Reflections of the ambient community 2019)
• 30:45    Robert Rich - Fall Up, the Clouds Will Catch You (Offering to the Morning Fog 2020)
• 39:30    The Green Kingdom – Cloud Cloak (Ephemera 2018)
• 43:09    Innesti – The Architecture of Clouds (Formless 2019)
• 51:20    halftribe – Cloud Dreaming and Shadows (Cloud Dreaming And Shadows 2020)
• 56:22    Rudy Adrian - Of Clouds and Mountains (Desert Realms 2008)
• 63:29    end

Aromas from the East - by Paul Asbury Seaman

 

I've had a good run lately, posting a lot of mixes. But due to busy schedules and a bit of laziness, I've run out of fresh mixes ready to upload. Then comes Paul to the rescue!

This mix is a breath of fresh air, going in a different direction than any of my recent mixes. Here's what Paul has to say about this excellent set:

“This mix features oud, sitar and koto, moving from the Near/Middle East, across South Asia to the Far East. This is not a Folkways sampler, but focuses on the rich tapestries created when Eastern and Western musical styles and instruments are blended together, with both traditions being equal participants, rather than one used merely as “exotic” embellishments for the other. Such cross-cultural musical experiments go back to the mid-20th century’s jazz /rock fusion groups (e.g., Oregon); early EM pioneers like Kitaro, Osamu Kitajima, Popul Vuh and David Parsons; and visionary new record labels like ECM. Here, I’ve highlighted more recent work, and while the options are much more plentiful now, the Low Lights leitmotif of gentle atmospheres has guided my selection. Even so, a couple of mid-tempo gems—essential to this kind of survey—have snuck into the mix."

Thanks, Paul, for another great contribution to the Low Light Mixes canon.

[ s t r e a m ]    [ d o w n l o a d ]    [ i t u n e s ]

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00    Dhafer Youssef - Shaanti 'Atihi Devo Bhava' Suite (Sounds of Mirrors 2018)
• 04:10    Rahim AlHaj - Letter 1 Eastern Love Sinan (Letters from Iraq: Oud and String Quintet 2017)
• 10:41    Sachal Studios Orchestra - Take Five (Interpretations of Jazz Standards & Bossa Nova 2010)
• 16:20    Prem Joshua - Night Rain (Sky Kisses Earth 2001)
• 22:45    Anoushka Shankar - Prayer in Passing (Rise 2005)
• 28:52    Hans Christian - First Light (Nanda Devi 2015)
• 35:20    Al Gromer Khan - I Got Vilayat Khan's Blessing (Sitar Secrets 2014)
• 39:14    Hiroshima - Kototsu-Han (Pbon 2005)
• 44:04    Luna - Tubular Bells (Luna 2013)
• 48:09    Gates of Morheim - Omagatoki (Omagatoki EP 2020)
• 53:15    Kitaro - Shining Spirit of Water (Sacred Journey of Ku-Kai, Vol 2 2005)
• 57:33    Rabih Abou Khalil - Bukra (Bukra 1989)
• 65:25    end