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INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS & RELATED ARTICLES

Electronic Sound MARCH 2023 - by Velimir Ilic

JON HASSELL: THE LIVING CITY / PSYCHOGEOGRAPHY

Reissues by "Fourth World" maestro

It's difficult to overstate what a seismic influence American avant-garde composer, trumpeter and arch "conceptualist" Jon Hassell had on contemporary music, electronic or otherwise. Having studied under Stockhausen, and collaborated with Terry Riley and La Monte Young, some of their brilliance clearly rubbed off. But Hassell was very much a free-spirited genius operating on his own terms. Morphing and weaving between different music genres at will, he assimilated global sounds and styles into his groundbreaking "Fourth World" sonics.

Part of an archival series by Hassell's own Ndeya label, The Living City and Psychogeography now appear as stand-alone vinyl editions for the first time (both were previously included as bonus material on the 2014 reissue of Hassell's City: Works Of Fiction album). Credited to the Jon Hassell Group, the recorded performance on The Living City was part of a 1989 audiovisual installation put together by Brian Eno in New York. Mixed live by Eno himself, it's a remarkable snapshot.

Hassell and co quickly lock you into their lurching groove, all giddying loops, samples, rubbery bass and deft improv - mutant rhythms from a parallel universe. Throughout, the blaring of Hassell's trumpet is expertly manipulated and tempered into woozy states. There's tension and a sense of foreboding on Adedara Rising, the feeling of being pursued through a hot, dense jungle, fearful of what you might stumble upon. Fabulous. And when Hassell really pushes the trumpet FX to the max on Mashujaa, those unearthly squeals are something else.

Enthused by leading-edge hip hop production in the late 1980s and American producer Teo Macero's bold tape-splicing work with Miles Davis, Hassell was always looking to reinvent his music, and 2014's Psychogeography finds him right at home. A situationist reworking of 1990's original City: Works Of Fiction album, featuring demos, alternate versions and studio jams, this playful, late-career audio collage sees Hassell irreverently reshaping and resequencing his earlier pieces. Jazzy, abstract, ambient and bordering on hypnagogic in places, it's both discombobulatingly complex and deliciously cosmic, especially on the effervescent Cityism Superdub, with its synthesised barks, wah overload and full-on funk.

In short, both The Living City and Psychogeography (also released as a double CD titled Further Fictions) are a testament to Hassell's visionary, spellbinding oeuvre. Fearless, unique and much missed, there'll never be another quite like him.