Jon Hassell - Last Night The Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes In The Street

For over thirty-three years, trumpet player and composer Jon Hassell has been creating a world that has yet to exist. With his latest, Last Night The Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes In The Street, Hassell brings the listener even closer to this alternate reality of a "Forth World," which is a blend of the traditional music of third-world countries, Western Jazz, and electronics.  Hassell plays his trumpet in long strides that paint a landscape of some familiar, yet out-of-reach places. Many times, his instrument is filtered through electronics and effects that change the timbre in a way that evoke feelings and memories of places that are simultaneously distant and regionally familiar without actually being a real place that can be found on any map. Hassell's composition exhibits a strong sense of restraint and patience, and although it can be considered minimalism, it is extremely rich music with an unfathomable depth of layers. Listening to Last Night is kind of like being on the verge of sleep while Miles Davis' In A Silent Way plays from another room. "Time And Place" lumbers forward with electric bass modes piled underneath swirls of stringed instruments and Hassell's trumpet voicings. The title track is the strongest piece on the album: a yawning string section undulates between two chords as occasional, glitchy melodies wash in and out between harmonized trumpet phrases (think a jazzier Stars Of The Lid). Last Night makes for a truly lush and beautiful listening experience that will take you all over a world that has yet to come.