Jon Hassell – Vernal Equinox (LP)

Album Info Hide Show Artist: Jon Hassell Album: Vernal Equinox Released: Europe, 2020 Tracklist: A1 Toucan Ocean A2 Viva Shona A3 Hex A4 Blues Nile B1 Vernal Equinox B2 Caracas Night September 11, 1975 Info About Buying Vinyl From Our Record Store We are a small independent record store located at 211 High St, Preston in Melbourne, Australia (North of Northcote, between Thornbury & Reservoir) We buy and sell new and used vinyl records – if you have a collection you’d like to sell please click here . We ship Australia wide for a flat rate of $10 for standard shipping or $15 for express post. Free Shipping for orders $150 and over. You can also pick up your order in store, just select Local Pickup at the checkout. We also ship internationally – prices vary depending on weight and location. We ship vinyls in thick, rigid carboard mailers with a crushable zone on either side, and for extra safety we bubble wrap the records. 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You can contact our Melbourne record shop at (03) 9939 3807 or at [email protected] Happy Listening! Description Hide Show Some records feel like weather. Vernal Equinox is thick with heat and slow movement, the kind of sound that hangs in the air long after the notes fade. Jon Hassells debut arrived in 1977 and laid out the grammar for what he later dubbed Fourth World music, where acoustic and electronic, ancient and modern, meet in a shared dream. A fresh remaster in 2020 put Vernal Equinox vinyl back within reach, and it still feels startlingly new when the needle drops. Hassells palette is spare but uncanny. The trumpet is his voice, stretched and blurred through harmonisers and tape delay until it becomes something humid and breathy, less brass than wind and skin. Those sustained tones hint at his studies with the Indian vocalist Pandit Pran Nath, where pitch is a living thing that bends and lingers. You can hear that patience here. Phrases glide rather than jab. Space does a lot of work. A quiet rustle of hand percussion and bells threads through, as if the room itself is alive. The title piece floats on a patient pulse that never hurries the trumpet. The timbre is soft, almost vaporised, yet it carries a lot of feeling. Hassell finds melodies that feel whispered, like a story told in low light, and the electronics colour the edges so youre never quite sure where breath ends and circuit begins. Elsewhere the record leans into a more ritual energy. Patterns circle, little figures repeat, and the trumpet lays a line across the top that turns those patterns into something like a map. It rewards close listening. On speakers it fills a lounge with warm air. In headphones it turns intimate, every inhale and valve click adding to the spell. Vernal Equinox matters not just because it sounds gorgeous, but because of what it unlocked. Within a few years Hassell would team with Brian Eno on Fourth World Vol. 1 Possible Musics and take the idea to a wider audience, but the seed is here. He was already dissolving the old borders between jazz, minimalism and global traditions, not by quoting styles but by inventing a space where they could coexist without hierarchy. That spirit has filtered through decades of ambient and experimental work since. You can hear traces of this approach in leftfield electronic records and in the quieter corners of modern jazz. Its one of those albums that shifts your ears, then keeps shifting. The 2020 reissue did right by the music. Noise has been scrubbed without thinning the atmosphere, the trumpet retains its glow, and the low percussion feels rounded rather than dull. If youre crate digging at a Melbourne record store, the sleeve alone is a beacon. If youre searching from the couch, its become much easier to buy Jon Hassell records online than it used to be. For collectors who chase Jon Hassell vinyl, this pressing is a solid way to hear the record as a whole, not just as a historical footnote. Among Jon Hassell albums on vinyl its a cornerstone, the one that lets the rest make sense. Theres a certain time of night when this album makes perfect sense. After dinner, dishes done, city noise softened, put it on and let the room breathe. The trumpet doesnt demand attention, it earns it. The percussion doesnt show off, it circles and comforts. Across the sides theres a feeling of travel without tourism, of reaching for an elsewhere thats less a place than a mood. Thats rare. Its also why Vernal Equinox has aged so gracefully. No trends to chase, no dated gloss, just a clear idea executed with care. For anyone building an ambient or experimental corner in their shelves, Vernal Equinox vinyl is essential. If youre browsing vinyl records Australia wide, dont sleep on it. Its not just an origin point for Hassell, who kept exploring right up until the 2010s, but a beautiful listen on its own terms. Play it soft and let it get under your skin. Then play it again and notice how much more there is than you first heard. Thats the mark of a classic, and this one still glows. Product Reviews Hide Show Write a Review