Ry Cooder summons fourth world trumpeter Jon Hassell, jazz star pianist Jacky Terrasson, and classical Indian flutist Ronu Majumdar, to a big resonant church in Santa Barbara and creates "tone-magic" – a bath in the sheer beauty of sound expressed in a kind of global, space-age Duke Ellington palette. Music without a price for an audience that can't be bought.

Recorded live and mixed by none other than Brian Eno, 'The Surgeon…' is one of Fourth World inaugurator Hassell's most breathtaking full-lengths, capturing the physicality of his performance and matching his lopsided trumpet work with hypnotic synths and ghostly, muted percussion. If you've not jumped into his catalog before, this is the perfect starting point!

Ry Cooder summons fourth world trumpeter Jon Hassell, jazz star pianist Jacky Terrasson, and classical Indian flutist Ronu Majumdar, to a big resonant church in Santa Barbara and creates "tone-magic" – a bath in the sheer beauty of sound expressed in a kind of global, space-age Duke Ellington palette. Music without a price for an audience that can't be bought.

Magical music, trailing deep roots. The listener is at first struck by the power of Amina Alaoui’s voice, soaring above Jon Balke’s remarkable compositions for baroque ensemble - with soloists drawn from jazz, scattered improvisational traditions, and the world of early music. Behind this remarkable musical integration is a web of philosophical, historical, and literary interconnections, as Balke and Alaoui set texts from Sufi poets, Christian mystics, troubadours and more and - inspired by the tolerant and creative spirit of medieval Al-Andalus - ponder what was lost to the bonfires of the Inquisition. Setting new standards in transcultural music, "Siwan" shows what can be made today when artists of the most divergent background pool their energies.

American trumpet player and composer returns to ECM with a stand-out album. Jon Hassell is known for his influence in contemporary music and his unusual electronic manipulation of the trumpet sound which has been lauded and imitated by many. He has collaborated with the likes of Brian Eno, he co-composed the electronic theme music for the television show The Practice, and still makes guest appearances on many albums). The music and Jon's background provided sizeable opportunities to market the record to a wide audience encompassing lovers of electronic, jazz, and world music.

A companion piece to 2018’s Listening To Pictures, this second volume in the pentimento series presents eight new tracks by the music visionary, continuing his lifelong exploration of the possibilities of recombination and musical gene-splicing. Pentimento is defined as the “reappearance in a painting of earlier images, forms, or strokes that have been changed and painted over” and this is evident in the innovative production style that ‘paints with sound’ using overlapping nuances to create an undefinable and intoxicating new palette.