RIP Jon Hassell

I bought this album, Fourth World Vol.1, Possible Music back in 1980 and it's stayed with me for the rest of my life.  Jon Hassell produced many other great albums over the years, but this, which was actually his third, served as a blueprint for all that preceded and all that followed.  

I remember one night in 1980 or very early '81 when Annie and Rich came over to the apartment I shared with Mary Ellen, and we played this album and got high.  Words and thoughts fell away, and we all just sat there, four chatty friends, transfixed and silent as Side A played all the way through on the phonograph. I made a mental note that this was weapons-grade ambient music, not to be played at parties or other social events.  In 1980, Chemistry sounded like music from some alternative future even while it was grounded in a tribal past, and it still sounds that way to me today.

His sound is so unique, it needs to be stated for the uninitiated that it's a trumpet, albeit treated, that he's playing.

I remember the shock of recognition I felt when I heard his distinctive sound on the Talking Heads' Houses In Motion, or in the soundtrack of The Last Temptation of Christ. Over the years, I've purchased vinyl, cassette, and CD versions of at least eight of his albums. His Wikipedia page lists 18 albums under his name.

And I remember the sadness I felt when I learned that Hassell passed away Saturday at the age of 84.  I never saw him perform live, but held out hope that someday he'd play at Big Ears again (he played the the very first Big Ears festival in its initial 2009 edition, but I missed it). 

I wish Jon a rest in the peace that his music has brought to me for some 40 years.