PSYCHOGEOGRAPHY - ZONES OF FEELING by JON HASSELL

New archival release that showcase Jon Hassell and group in the late 1980s exploring a radical tangent on his Fourth World sensibilit, a mixture of traditional Indian Vocal style - which Hassell adapted for the trumpet - and advanced electronic techniques.

Psychogeography is a situationist re-thinking of the 1990 City: Works Of Fiction album, a carefully edited sequence of alternate takes, demos and studio jams put together by Jon Hassell in 2014 using Debordian philosophy as his guide.

The bombastic explosions of worldly sounds in Jon Hassell’s City: Works Of Fiction dropped in 1990, depicting an imagined future of thought provoking oxymorons: urban ancients living everywhere and nowhere blasting hypermodern folk hymns from their speakers. Over thirty years later, it still sounds far out yet totally familiar. It was a fruitful time for Hassell, who later drew a map of the city with alternate takes, demos, and studio jams in the form of Psychogeography, released in 2014 and reissued here in all its glory.

Charting this oneiric metropolis, Hassell and co wander aimlessly through sonic highways where global architectures meld seamlessly together. “Psychogeography” stems from Situationist philosophy, where one disregards the designed layout of a city and instead moves through its “zones of feeling”. Combined with Hassell’s fourth world concepts, this companion album to his 1990 epic forms an even deeper melting pot of times, spaces, moods, and places, drifting through hypnagogic ambience and electrified sensory overloads.

‘Aerial View’ conveys a vastness with its windily morphing passages, overlooking the kaleidoscope of sounds to come: from the nocturnal dub of ‘Neon Night (Rain)’ to the maximalist whirlwind bop of ‘Cityism Superdub’, a landslide of fuzz and wah. ‘Freeway’ portrays the rhythmic chugging of vehicles and the soporific feeling of long, long drives, “a blur of taillights” drawn in sunset coloured chords. The abstracted jazz visions of Hassell’s signature trumpets on ‘Waterfront District’ go from foggy murmurs to forceful yodels in seconds, while the gnashing drums, blues inspired guitars, and “limping bass groove” on ‘Favela’ wouldn’t be out of place in the most experimental of grunge jams.

Fusing infinite influences, Psychogeography is a necessity for anyone looking to broaden their musical horizons.

About Jon Hassell 
Jon Hassell passed away at the age of 84 on 26 June 2021, leaving behind a significant legacy of highly influential music and art created over his lifetime. He was a Zelig-like figure who interconnected with an enormous range of 20th century art and music: growing up going to juke joints and blues parties in post-WWII Memphis; studying under Stockhausen with Holger Czukay and Irmin Schmidt of Can; befriending Terry Riley and playing on the classic recording of “In C”; forming part of the Theatre Of Eternal Dream Music with La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela; mentored in raga by Prandit Pran Nath; playing with David Rosenboom and Naná Vasconcelos on his first record; collaborating with Eno; playing on Remain In Light with Talking Heads; lifelong friendship with the artist Mati Klarwein; recording with Farafina, Ry Cooder, Leslie Winer, Juan Atkins and Moritz Von Oswald, amongst many others; the full list goes on and on.

The Ndeya label was set up by Jon in partnership with Warp Records as a home for his music. So far Ndeya has issued his two Pentimento albums - Listening To Pictures (2018) and Seeing Through Sound (2020), a remarkable curtain call from a true auteur, as well as a much-needed reissue of his debut album Vernal Equinox, remastered from the original tapes, and a limited run collection of his writing about his own music, Atmospherics. Now that he is sadly no longer with us, Ndeya is working with Jon’s estate on preserving his legacy going forward, with a number of archival projects underway.