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Listening To Pictures (Pentimento Volume One)

by Jon Hassell

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atmosphere012
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atmosphere012 Completly unique artist and huge respect to come out with such experimental albums. Really love the jazziness of Manga Scene. Favorite track: Manga Scene.
Dr. Reality
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Dr. Reality A work of freakish art, a collage of soundscapes from across the planet colliding through Hasssll's uniquely eerie and ambient brand of abstract trumpet-based composition. Transportative, unique and timeless, this album has become one of my favourites of the last several years Favorite track: Ndeya.
Andrew Garton
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Andrew Garton I have lived with Jon's music and atmospheres my entire adult life. In fact, I first heard Jon's work in my late teens and it has accompanied me ever since. There are gaps in listening, but when ever one returns, it is extraordinary how varied these atmospheres are and still explored, discovered, unearthed. Thank you...
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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Single 140g vinyl LP in a full colour printed sleeve with printed inner. Includes download card.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Listening To Pictures (Pentimento Volume One) via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Listening To Pictures CD
    Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Jewel case in printed outer slipcase + 10 page booklet

    Includes unlimited streaming of Listening To Pictures (Pentimento Volume One) via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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1.
Dreaming 06:08
2.
Picnic 05:58
3.
Slipstream 02:54
4.
Al Kongo Udu 05:12
5.
6.
Manga Scene 05:44
7.
8.
Ndeya 07:06

about

pen·ti·men·to / noun
Reappearance in a painting of earlier images, forms, or strokes that have been changed and painted over.

First new album in nine years by a musical visionary and hugely influential figure in new music. Forty years since its creation, Jon Hassell's Fourth World aesthetic remains a powerful influence on modern electronic music. Continuing his lifelong exploration of the possibilities of recombination and musical gene-splicing, fragments of performance are sampled, looped, overdubbed and re-arranged into beguiling unexpected shapes. Hassell applies the painterly technique of ‘pentimento’ to the arrangements, teasing out texture by the overlaying of sound upon sound, or a carefully timed reveal of the delicate bones pinning the frame of a track together.

The release of this new album also sees the launch of Jon’s own label, Ndeya (pronounced “in-day-ya”), which will be a home for new work as well as well as selected archival releases, including re-presses of classic sides and some astonishing unreleased music.

Praise for Listening To Pictures (Pentimento Volume One):

“In a perfect Fourth World twist, the music remains entirely grounded in the now while also sounding like it’s been floating in the cosmos for eons.” - Pitchfork

“Hassell is making the most forward-looking and experimental music of his career. Dense, endlessly mutating music that rewards multiple listenings.” - The Guardian

“The impact of Jon Hassell on today’s generation of electronic and ambient artists is immeasurable” - Paste Magazine

"Hallelujah, Jon Hassell is back!" - Dave Segal, The Stranger

credits

released June 8, 2018

FOR MATI
Everywhere here - in the music, in the art - all is suffused with the
spirit of my immortal brother, Mati Klarwein - the man and the artist
(and the conga player!) I fell in love with in New York almost forty
years ago when I first saw his paintings. They seemed to be alive and
pulsating with a music whose time had come, a world music (try to
imagine you’re hearing those two words together for the first time)
that was an unprecedented synthesis of sensual, spiritual and sexy.
Even more confounding to the art establishment of the time was that it
was expressed with impeccable classical tempera technique. But after
all, what could be expected from a man whose international circle of
friends included Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix and Salvador Dali?
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -
This boy from Memphis just got lucky to have a friend and teacher like
this and some of my most beautiful experiences in the last years were
hanging out with him and his (and my) extended family circle in the
spectacular coastal Mediterranean landscape of Deya. Some pictures I
shot while there reappear in the hazy imagery of the album art. In one
of these (above) Mati himself seems to be disappearing into his own
painting as he points out a detail to me. All of these images - blended
from a lifetime of snapshots, clippings and notes on my studio wall -
are meant to evoke the pentimento idea as it morphs from its origin in
visual art, through the overlays of memory and here into the territory
of music.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -
pen·ti·men·to / noun
Reappearance in a painting of earlier images, forms, or strokes that
have been changed and painted over.

When I first stumbled on the definitions of “pentimento” I started
hearing the music that we were working on as layers showing through
other layers - in both pictorial and temporal ways. Music in pictures.
Pictures in music. Listening to Pictures. Nothing new here of
course...Except the stunning new reality that music can now be moved
around digitally as never before. A fact that opens the door to an
endless flow of new possibilities. Just another little stream trickling out
of a fountain called “Possible Musics.”

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Matthew Jones gets top billing here for having led the
forward-leaning Warp team to collaborate in the creation of this new
label - NDEYA - a dedicated imprint label where all my new recordings
will appear alongside newly-curated rereleases and previously-
unreleased music from the Fourth World decades.

About all the musicians heard here I can say that they are all unique stylists in their own universe. But about my three collaborators in the Studio Group —Rick Cox, John von Seegern, Hugh Marsh — I can go further to say that they are all gifted musical alchemists whose contributions are so intricately interwoven into the textures that mention of their instrument only hints at the extent of their actual presence at any
moment in the music. Rick Cox must be further singled out not only
for his performance genius and musicality but also for making Studio
Venice - complete with seagulls and ocean sound - an extraordinary
proving ground for interblending the digital and the musical and the
cool. And what good luck we have for our long history of working with
a master audio engineer - Arnaud Mercier - whose unparalleled blend
of musical sensitivities and technical knowledge are present in every
second of the recordings. Finally, I’m pleased to note that this record
also marks a valued moment of reconnection with my longtime friend,
Brian Eno.

My heartfelt gratitude to the Mati Klarwein Family for permission to
sample motifs from a few paintings — notably Leh, C’est Beau (1976),
The Visit (1996) and The Spanking (1997).

Jon Hassell trumpet, keyboards, orchestration
Rick Cox guitar, OP-1 synth, electronics
John von Seggern bass, drums, electronics
Hugh Marsh electric violin, electronics

Peter Freeman bass, electronics tks 2, 3, 7
Ralph Cumbers “kongo” drum programming tk 2
Eivind Aarset electric guitar, sampler tk 8
Kheir-Eddine M’Kachiche violin, sampler tk 8
Christoph Harbonnier (Lightwave) bass tk 7
Christian Jacob (Lightwave) bass tk 3
Michel Redolfi electronics tk 3

Produced by Jon Hassell
Co-produced by Rick Cox
Executive Producer - Matthew Jones
Production Coordinator - Britton Powell
Recorded at Studio Venice, California
Art direction - Dan Kuehn, Arien Valizadeh, Taska Cleveland
Album art sources and inspiration - Mati Klarwein
Mastering - Al Carlson, New York
Additional mastering - Valgeir Sigurðsson, Arnaud Mercier
All compositions Jon Hassell / Nyen Music via Warp Publishing

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Jon Hassell Los Angeles, California

Jon Hassell pioneered a musical ethos he dubbed 'Fourth World', a mixture of traditional Indian Vocal style - which Hassell adapted for the trumpet - and advanced electronic techniques, a style which manifested itself in his seminal first album 'Vernal Equinox'. His career since then has seen many influential solo works as well as collaborations with Talking Heads, Peter Gabriel, amongst others. ... more

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