Jon Hassell Dream Theory In Malaya CD

Personnel includes: Jon Hassell (trumpet, pottery drums); Michael Brook (bass); Walter DeMaia (drums); Brian Eno (drums, bowl gongs, bells); Miguel Frasconi (bowl gongs); Daniel Lanois.
Overwhelmingly interesting and extremely variant, Jon Hassell's Dream Theory in Malaya is rescued from the stereotypical new age recipe, thanks to its ever-changing instrumental structure and the use of numerous eccentric instruments that emerge as the album progresses. The album's concept is taken from an anthropologist's 1935 study of a tribe of Malaysian aborigines who made it part of their daily routine to discuss the dreams they had the night before. To this story line, Hassell has created a novel and extraordinary set of instrumental meanderings that even includes a refurbished and re-fragmented set of rhythms that was believed to be created by the Semelai tribe. The mixture of bowl gongs, bells, and assorted drums captures the primeval spirit of the album, while Hassell's use of the trumpet on all of the tracks implements some of today's modern sound amongst the percussiveness. Brian Eno lends a hand on "Courage," "Dream Theory," and "These Times," playing drums and bells, while the entire album was spotlessly engineered by Daniel Lanois. Without coming off as an album that is restrained in clichéd patterns and tempos, Jon Hassell makes sure the instruments fluctuate and change time signatures on a steady basis, enabling added attention to be given to the culmination of the music as a whole. ~ Mike DeGagne
Volume One of Jon Hassell and Brian Eno's "Fourth World" report remains a classic recording of electronic, mutant gamelan and exotic indigenous musics that truly bridges many worlds. DREAM THEORY IN MALAYA (4TH WORLD II) picks up right where its predecessor left off, eking out even more convoluted paths into the dense shrubs and foliage of the cyberjungle.
DREAM THEORY IN MALAYA, featuring collaborators Eno and Daniel Lanois, is one of Hassell's finest moments. Hassell's remarkable trumpet tone, all tone smears and monsoon breaths, is at its peak on "Dream Theory," wherein insect-like tribesmen make ritual whoopee amid cavalcades of thick, throbbing log drums. At once alien and awe-inspiring, this music is so highly individual that it has yet to be eclipsed-even by Hassell himself. "Datu Bintung at Jelong" further probes the gamelan/juju interface, splicing in the respiratory sounds of metallic harps-vibrating electronic chorales and strange, mechanistic breathing.