Abul Mogard on ‘Fearless’ from Seeing Through Sound (Pentimento Volume Two) (2020)

There are various works by Jon Hassell that I really like and listened to many times. My favourites are Fourth World Volume One with Brian Eno, Aka/Darbari/Java: Magic Realism and Fascinoma that feature some really emotional compositions. However I would like to talk about his latest piece ‘Fearless’ that I just discovered. I find this track very intriguing and interesting. I love how underneath the nearly constant percussion pattern all the sounds and layers change almost continuously. The more I listen to it the more details I notice. It's like a small suite where all the instrumentation mutates seamlessly and evolves. A journey that starts in exotic territories and slowly becomes more electronic and suspended, while we are anchored to the same bass note. To me it’s an excellent continuation of his Fourth World concept.