Jon Hassell, the end of a single breath

Although he wasn't the most famous trumpet player in the world, Jon Hassell was without doubt one of the most influential of his generation. A student of Stockhausen in Darmstadt, the American who died on 26 June 2021 was above all totally original. An insatiable experimenter attracted by minimalism and mysticism, he never stopped slaloming between genres. Jazz, world, new age, ambient or rock, Hassell's trumpet crossed paths with such minimalist greats such as Terry Riley (Hassell plays on his mythical In C from 1964) and LaMonte Young as well as a master of Indian ragga singing like Prân Nath, without forgetting many players of the rock planet (David Sylvian, Peter Gabriel, Lloyd Cole, Tears For Fears, Ry Cooder, Jackson Browne, Stina Nordenstam, Ani DiFranco...).

Like any trumpeter, Jon Hassell was obviously turned upside down by Miles Davis, from whom he borrowed in particular, his management of space and silences. If his first album, the magical Vernal Equinox released in 1977, already drew the contours of an outlaw of unclassifiable music, however many discovered him three years later, with Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics, conceived with Brian Eno. A summit of fusion between ethnic music and electronic experimentation so innovative that it cannot be dated or attached to a precise genre.

The same year, this same Eno also takes Hassell on board for the masterpiece of the Talking Heads Remain in Light... Without making any fuss, Jon Hassell spent his career digging his very own groove. Refining that unmistakable sound and maintaining that meditative and simply beautiful no-man's-land style.

In the heart of the summer of 2020, at the age of just 83, he shared the news of his new album Seeing Through Sound. On this sequel to the first volume of Pentimento, released two years earlier, Jon Hassell unveiled eight cinematic pieces dedicated to Fellini. Themes to be watched with the ears. Like a synaesthetic film that runs through your head, mixing meditative work, minimalist pieces and sequences of piano and celestial violin. A new stateless, timeless wonder that was more like him than ever...

CELEBRATE THE LIFE OF JON HASSELL ON QOBUZ