Music for hammocks

Why is it so difficult to get back into blogging when I’ve been away? Must have something to do with the fact I don’t take my laptop away with me, so the usual cyber-routines get well and truly disrupted in favour of more healthful pastimes. Well, this brief post is my bridge back in out of the sunight and into the dull glow of an LCD screen… I got back a week or so ago from a week in a remote village in the foothills of the Spanish Pyrennees. In the garden above the place we stayed there was a hammock slung between two olive trees. It was the only place I listened to any music during that week (via my iPod). Here’s my brief list of personal music recommendations for such a setting:

Jon Hassell – Maarifa Street, live in Berlin 4 November 2006
Al Di Meola – Cielo e Terra
Manuel Gottsching – E2-E4
Ryuichi Sakamoto & Morelenbaum2 – Casa

Sakamoto and Morelenbaum’s Casa is a set of dreamy interpretations of classic Carlos Jobim bossa nova tunes; I have Gutterbreakz to thank for getting to hear Gottsching’s E2-E4 as I’d never got round to checking it out before; Al Di Meola’s Cielo e Terra is a longtime favourite, being mostly solo acoustic pieces tinged with wistful melancholy that grow increasingly labyrinthine as they progress; the Jon Hassell recording is an FM bootleg which is breathtakingly beautiful. I’ve been listening to it a lot. Hassell is 70 this year and his playing, which was always more minimal than Miles, is now incredibly compacted: he can tease a heart-wracking scream that’s barely louder than a whisper; his three accompanists (bass, percussion and violin) each contribute to the incredibly sensual whole. If you’re a fellow Hassell phreak, get in touch at the email address at the bottom of the page or leave a comment to find out how to obtain a copy.