Track Listing

1. Chemistry
2. Delta Rain Dream
3. Griot (Over Contagious Magic)
4. Ba-Benzélé
5. Rising Thermal 14° 16' N; 32° 28' E
6. Charm (Over Burundi Cloud)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #52347 in Music
• Released on: 1990-08-31
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
The term "Fourth World" has often been used to describe various ethno-electronic compositions. Joining trumpeter Jon Hassell in different combinations on Possible Musics are coproducer and synthesist Brian Eno and percussionists Nana Vasconcelos and Ayibe Dieng, among others. Hassell has found a unique way to summon a lush, otherworldly sound from his trumpet, applying the Indian vocal techniques he learned from Pandit Pran Nath to the way he plays his instrument. On Possible Musics, he mixes his ethereal brass sounds with hand percussion, bass, analog synths, Eno's trademark studio treatments, and the occasional looped trumpet or keyboard riff. The hypnotic fusion of Indian and African aesthetics creates a dreamy brand of otherworldly world music that, despite the electronic influences swirling around it, maintains a strongly organic feel. This classic recording predated all of the ethnoambient music that proliferated throughout the last decade, but unlike many of those efforts, it still retains a strong sense of identity. --Bryan Reesman

Customer Reviews

Beautiful, Chilling, Subliminal Psychedelia
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
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.

A real turning point in modern music
Back in 1980, when this album was first released, few people could figure out how important it would have been. Brian Eno was already a star and Jon Hassell was quite known in the avant-garde scene. This is the result of their meeting: a stunning, hypnotic, forty minutes musical trip which takes the listener to fly over Africa savana and forests,melting together tribal percussion and computer treated trumpet. A must for every ambient/world fan and for anyone who loves Eno, world music and Talking Heads.