Jon Hassell
Fascinoma

After exploring the nature of possible musics (with Brian Eno), after considering sounds as words exchanged with the shaman (and with David Sylvian), after creating the image of the fourth world to describe his musical style (where Indian ragas, Javanese gamelan, and North African joujouka coexist), Jon Hassell incorporates other people's music into his sound landscape, not of his own invention, making it a significant part of "Fascinoma", a successful work from 1999. The title, in medical slang, refers to a rare and fascinating disease, perhaps the very one of musical fascination.

Five jazz standards for the American trumpeter plus five original compositions are in this album. Among the former, "Nature Boy" by Eden Ahbez, a reinterpretation of "Caravan" by Duke Ellington and Juan Tizol, as well as the concluding "Estate" by the Italians Brighetti and Martino; while the original tracks are mostly co-written with guest musicians, who blend the sound of Hassell's trumpet with the exotic timbres of tambura (an Indian fretless lute, similar in sound to the sitar) and bansuri (a bamboo flute, also Indian) alongside the more familiar guitar, piano, and percussion. "Datura" (the name of a hallucinogenic plant...) is the only track solely by Hassell, but there's no need to worry: the entire album, from beginning to end, fully reflects this musician's style and is a vivid testimony to his admirable creativity.

Notably, "Fascinoma," unlike his previous works, is an almost entirely acoustic album, where Hassell makes less use of electronic instrumentation and effects to filter his trumpet. Here and there, by his associates, some sampling or the use of the zendrum (a MIDI controller used to generate percussive sounds) can be found, but in general, "Fascinoma" focuses on the beauty of sound, on its magic when it is stripped of artifices. In this regard we have an exemplary work: for the pleasure of these 60 minutes of music, for the recording quality, and above all, for the depth and charisma of every note that Jon Hassell makes us savor.