Aka/Darbari/Java: Magic Realism

Last updated
Aka/Darbari/Java: Magic Realism
Aka darbari java artwork.jpg
Studio album by
Released1983
Recorded1982
StudioGrant Avenue Studios, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Genre World, ambient
Length44:10
Label Editions EG EGED 31
Producer Jon Hassell, Daniel Lanois
Jon Hassell chronology
Dream Theory in Malaya
(1981)
Aka/Darbari/Java: Magic Realism
(1983)
Power Spot
(1986)

Aka/Darbari/Java: Magic Realism is a 1983 album by American trumpet player and composer Jon Hassell, released on the label Editions EG. It was co-produced by Daniel Lanois and features Abdou M'Boup on drums. [1]

Contents

Background

The album features Hassell manipulating and looping fragments of sampled sound. [2] In the liner notes, Hassell describes the album as "a proposal for a 'coffee-colored' classical music of the future." [3]

The cover painting is by Mati Klarwein. [1]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [1]
The Village Voice A− [3]

AllMusic's Brian Olewnick described the album as "an insinuating blend of early-'80s high tech with ancient Southeast Asia," calling it "an early high-water mark at the juncture between world and ambient musics." [1] For The Village Voice , Robert Christgau called it "dandy background music--more fluid and organic than Dream Theory in Malaya if also more amorphous than his first Eno collaboration." [3]

In his 1995 book Ocean of Sound , David Toop writes that on Aka/Darbari/Java "the perfume of ethnopoetics was supplemented by parallels with literature and the advanced technology of hyperreality." [2]

Tracklist

All tracks composed by Jon Hassell unless otherwise noted.

  1. "Empire I" - 2:00
  2. "Empire II" (Hassell, Daniel Lanois) - 4:53
  3. "Empire III" - 7:09
  4. "Empire IV" - 5:13
  5. "Empire V" - 3:40
  6. "Darbari Extension I" - 13:52
  7. "Darbari Extension II" - 7:23

Personnel

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Olewnick, Brian. "Review: Aka/Darbari/Java - Jon Hassell". AllMusic. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  2. 1 2 Toop, David (2018). Oceans of Sound: Ambient sound and radical listening in the age of communication. Serpent's Tail. ISBN   9781788161046 . Retrieved 31 December 2019.
  3. 1 2 3 Christgau, Robert. "Christgau's Consumer Guide: Aug. 30, 1983". The Village Voice. Retrieved 30 December 2019.