In den Liner Notes verweist Cooper selbst auf Inspirationsquellen, die dieses Mal besonders deutlich im Hintergrund stehen: die visionären Klangwelten von Jon Hassell, die ikonischen Covergemälde des Malers Mati Klarwein, die Dub-Experimente von King Tubby und Lee Scratch Perry sowie die Literatur des amerikanischen Schriftstellers Nathaniel Mackey. Dabei geht es weniger um direkte Zitate als um imaginäre Orte und halb erinnerte Landschaften – Traumsettings, die zwischen realen Erfahrungen und Fiktion schweben. Für den stochastischen Papagei kombiniert Cooper Samples, Field Recordings, Stimme und Lap-Steel-Gitarren zu, wie er es nennt, digitalen Tagträumen. Unterstützung erhält er von zwei hochkarätigen Gästen: Pierre Bastien steuert mit seinem Ventilkornett warme, organische Farbtupfer bei, während Mark Cunningham mit der Trompete dabei ist.

“Composer and trumpeter Jon Hassell has been an elusive, iconic musical figure for more than half a century. He’s best known as the pioneer and propagandist of “Fourth World” music, mixing technology with the tradition and spirituality of non-western cultures to create what he termed the “coffee-colored classical music of the future.” In 1987 he joined with Farafina, the acclaimed percussion, voice, and dance troupe from Burkina Faso, to record Flash of the Spirit. While the album is a natural extension of those “Fourth World” ideas, and a new strand of Possible Musics, it also a distinctive outlier in the careers of both artists; an unrepeated merging of sounds whose influence still reverberates today. Hassell arrived as the outsider, having to slide in and around Farafina, an established group that started in 1978 where the leader, as he told Music Technology, was “somewhat inflexible in terms of new things. They were suspicious at first… about what could happen and why this whole thing was going on.” But once settled in the studio, the musicians sparked off each other. The eight members of the band – who had also collaborated with the Rolling Stones and Ryuichi Sakamoto – brought their long apprenticed, virtuosic drumming and melodic textures (balafon, flute, voices) to the sessions. They built up layers and patterns of rhythm, while producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois (fresh off the phenomenal success of U2’s Joshua Tree) created a sonic atmosphere in which they could creatively intertwine with Hassell’s digitally processed trumpet and keyboards. Just the physical feel of the drums in the room was enough to inspire Hassell.”

Farafina

Jon Hassell