There is a sound that only Jon Hassell can make. It is the sort of sound that once heard on a record, like on something from David Sylvian, for instance, lingers in the memory and stirs a listener's curiosity. "What is that sound? How did he make that sound?" is the question in the mind. The legendary treated trumpet of Jon Hassell is capable of producing that kind of noise. That noise started here, on Vernal Equinox, the debut album from Hassell. The 1977 record is being reissued for the first time in decades this week.
Vernal Equinox sounds like a Jon Hassell record, even as "Viva Shona" has a wonderful immediacy about it. As the trumpet plays we hear what sounds like a set of wind chimes. And we can imagine ourselves in the tropics, staring at the ocean. Elsewhere, "Hex" is more rhythmic, the sound here a compressed expression of the kind of material that would be stretched out on later releases by Jon. The title track here is an epic journey, one which must have sounded extraordinary in 1977. Long before world music was a thing, and prior to ambient music having a moment or two in the Eighties, this music must have seemed beyond all descriptive labels.
Vernal Equinox is a seminal record. For fans of Jon Hassell, that is obvious. For fans of ambient as a genre, this is a cultural artifact that is worth rediscovery. For those of you who, like me, came to love Hassell's music because of his work with Eno, this is essential as it shows the place that Hassell was coming from at the start of his remarkable musical journey.
Vernal Equinox is out on Friday via Ndeya.
More details on Jon Hassell via the official website.