The first-ever reissue and remastering of Jon Hassell and Farafina’s 1988 ‘Flash of the Spirit’ is currently enjoying rave reviews by music enthusiasts.
The album was re-issued on CD on 7th February 2020 on Glitterbeat and was co-produced with the legendary studio team of Brian Eno & Daniel Lanois.
According to Uncut Magazine, the tracks are alluringly experimental and agelessly contemporary.
“Interwoven with West African instruments like the balafon, kora and djembe, Hassell’s signature post-Miles trumpet fanfares sound humid and sultry as they emerge through a fog of pitch-bending electronics, these luscious hybrid tracks still sound alluringly experimental and agelessly contemporary,” the magazine said.
Similarly, Q Magazine believes there is a thrill aplenty on the re-issue.
“There are bottom-end drum thrills aplenty on the reissue of the Eno/Lanois-produced ‘Fourth World’ treasure ‘Flash of the Spirit’, by trumpeter Jon Hassell and Burkina Faso dance troupe Farafina,” the magazine wrote.
The album is currently enjoying airplay on BBC 6 Music (Tom Ravenscroft, Mary Anne Hobbs, Gideon Coe, and Stuart Maconie), BBC Radio 3 (Music Planet) and many more.
On its release 32 years ago, ‘Flash of the Spirit’ was a revelation, a record that had no clear parallel for its encompassing sound. The album remains a testament to both the influence Hassell has quietly exerted on contemporary music and the forward-looking traditionalism of Farafina, one of West Africa’s great rhythmic ensembles. As walls and barriers are erected around the globe, it is hard not to think of the music found on ‘Flash of the Spirit’ as ever more relevant. It is described as an echo from the past but still transmitting future possibilities.
Recall that composer and trumpeter Hassell, an elusive, iconic musical figure for more than half a century is best known as the pioneer and propagandist of “Fourth World” music, mixing technology with the tradition and spirituality of non-western cultures to create what he termed the “coffee-coloured classical music of the future.” In 1987 he joined with Farafina, the acclaimed percussion, voice, and dance troupe from Burkina Faso, to record ‘Flash of the Spirit’. While the album is a natural extension of those “Fourth World” ideas, it also a distinctive outlier in the careers of both artists; an unrepeated merging of sounds whose influence still reverberates today.
