Aka-Darbari-Java / Magic Realism

Jon Hassell | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 1, 1991)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Editions Eg Records
• ASIN: B000003S2U
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #494,295 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Empire I

2. Empire II

3. Empire III

4. Empire IV

5. Empire V

6. Darbari Extension I

7. Darbari Extension II

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars aka Magic Realism, November 6, 2003

By 

A. Dutkiewicz "jan-luke_adam" (Norwood, South Australia Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Aka-Darbari-Java / Magic Realism (Audio CD)

World Music is now a buzz term, but the interest in this concept began with players like Bela Bartok, Modest Mussorgsky, and in jazz, Duke Ellington and Miles Davis. The 1970s saw so much of this kind of thing going on - one thinks of John McLaughlin with his solo projects like My Goal's Beyond and then Shakti, Oregon, Don Cherry playing bizarre instruments from Tibet on projects like Eternal Now and Relativity Suite, and then Hassell.

This record was one of the earliest CDs,from 1983, and its Hassell's use of precorded samples and computers to create compositions in a modular way that makes this album so interesting. The music is like a soundtrack for a film, extremley gentle and slow moving, with dense textures of precorded raga and gamalan rhthms embellished by Hassell's (backwards?) trumpet and Abdou Mboup's percussion. The engineer Dan Lanois plays as big a part as the musicians.

The personel and cover art by Mati Klarwein, who painted the popular cover art for Santana's Abraxas album and did a few covers for Miles, indicate this album was really a continuation of the ideas he explored in Earthquake Island, which was made five years ealrier (also with art by Klarwein). There are liner notes by Hassell which explain the technical and artistic realites involved in this project which sound incredibly dated now, but must have been massively difficult at that time.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the most amazing art, December 2, 2008

By 

Guillermo Rizzotto "OLGA RECORDS" (Spain) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Aka-Darbari-Java / Magic Realism (Audio CD)

This record is the most "intrinseco" and deeper work by this master, the trumpet player Jon Hassell.
One of my favorite composer.
I can't belived how the companies not make a new edition, this is the most different music art i found since the 50s till now.
Buy it and keep it for all your life and for your child.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars coffee flavoured music anyone?, July 5, 2001

By 

"letsgetreal" (north vancouver ,canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Aka-Darbari-Java / Magic Realism (Audio CD)

this album is pretty strange- kind of ambient with muted trumpet and javanese influences. the most interesting thing would be how it pre-dates the current interest in ethnic and world music, although in a very non-commercial way. If you like this album see if you can locate a copy of Jah Wobble's Bedroom album, which accomplishes a similiar goal in a more accessible way.