The new contributions expand the oeuvre of musician Edward Larry Gordon aka Laraaji by a few approaches and experimentations. Besides his well-known zither work, Gordon adds guitar and his voice as well as a gong[1] to the new album and the EP. This is what the US-American told zweikommasieben in a conversation prior to the release:
“The gong work is definitely new. Guitar is more or less new—I played it for years, but never included it in an LP. And the singing work is becoming more committed. I’ve always sang in concert work, but the idea of getting into song material on albums is quite new. Well, I did it in my very early music, but wouldn’t commit to it in the recordings during the eighties and nineties. After concerts and workshops, I was often approached, if I have recordings with my voice. I couldn’t really say yes. That’s the inspiration, the requests. Also, I’ve got a lot of feedback that my voice has a good energy for a lot of people. And I’m all about sharing good energy.“
It’s not only this approach of sharing energy, which also includes Yoga lessons and laughter workshops, that got Laraaji connections into the New Age scene since the early seventies[2].
“When it first came up, I heard New Age by Steven Halpern, and the music wafted and drifted in a way that I wasn’t hearing in other music. I heard music that had a beginning, climax, an ending and a theme. And this constant wafting, allowing the listener to just chill, and be present—without a rush to get anywhere—helped me to feel more of what where I wanted to go with music. Although I’ve been trained classically, I felt that is where I want to go. For that was a ‘New Age’-listening, pointing a finger toward a new age of musical composition, intention, expression, listening and recording.”
New Age is then, as Laraaji explains, also a new audience, established through the popularization of Yoga, meditation and relaxation-exercises. And works like Halpern’s Christening For Listening are the music to support that inner process of being still and contemplation introduced by Yoga and the likes.
“So in the best case, the market that comes forward, New Age music, hopefully by artists who have by themselves a meditative experience, opened up a new level of meditative readiness on the planet. I believe meditations and contemplation are key to a brighter future for our planet. We will still need music to help people to feel their celebration, their joy and also to feel their releases through blues. But music that supports the listeners to breathe easier and relax into meditative states, I believe that this was and still is a wonderful New Age direction.”
The wider conscious of the musical world has noticed Laraaji also through Brian Eno. He released Gordon’s typical electrified zither playing as Day Of Radiance and part three of the Ambient series.
“Eno’s approach and definition of ambient was important because it allowed me to get a sense of an audience in the world, that was listening to music in a new way. My sense of ambient is immersive ambient, a music field, an ambient field, into which the listeners would find themselves immersed—emotionally, psychologically. And in that field they would notice themselves, notice the way they feel, how their thoughts behaved, their behaviour behaves. It was inspired by my own experience of a total immersive ambient sound hearing in the mid Seventies. This was an epiphany, a sound vision, which I have attracted. It was an Omni-ocean of music and sound. It was not linear sound—I was and still am aware of the infinity of those tonal vibrations. Being immersed in that field—whether you call it ambient or whatever—was such a unique experience, that I felt that I don’t need to do linear music, as much as let people drop into an immersive feel and have their own experience.”
Since Day Of Radiance almost 20 Laraaji albums and numerous private tapes and CDs have been released, always trying to immerse the listener in such a field. After All Saints presented Celestial Music 1978-2011 and The Two Sides Of Laraaji, the label also released a remix EP for the first time in 2014 featuring altered Laraaji-material. Following the new album Bring On The Sun and the Sun Gong EP this will again be the case in the near future (the full release plan of the re-imaginings is still to be confirmed). We’re already premiering Los Angeles-based musician Diva’s “The Treasure Expands Remix” of the track “Open The Gift”.
Laaraji has a few live shows in Europa this November alongside Carlos Niño[3]. Also, he’ll expand further on his Celestial Music approach and the connected healing powers in the upcoming issue of zweikommasieben.
[1] Also see the URSSS filmed performance by Laraaji at Terraforma Festival 2017.
[2] Laraaji was part of the 2013 retrospective New Age Compliation I Am The Center with «Unicorns In Paradise».
[3] Tourdates of “Laraaji & Carlos Niño present ‚Sun Dreaming‘” are the following:
08/11/17 Berlin DE Kiezsalon
10/11/17 Antwerp BE Hetbos
11/11/17 Eupen BE Europalia @ Alter Schlachthof
12/11/17 The Hague NL Rewire x Korzo
13/11/17 Dublin IE Sugar Club
16/11/17 Aarhus DK Tape
18/11/17 Hamburg DE Uberjazz @ Kampnagel
19/11/17 London UK London Jazz Festival @ Jazz Cafe