“Jon Hassell is more than a superb musician, and more even than a gifted composer. He is an inventor of new forms of music — of new ideas of what music could be, and how it might be made. His work is drawn from his whole being, and, by implication, from his whole cultural experience without fear or prejudice. It is an optimistic, global vision that suggests not only possible musics but possible futures.” — Brian Eno

The creator of “Fourth World” music described his ambition in this way: “My aim was to make a music that was vertically integrated in such a way that at any cross-sectional moment you were not able to pick a single element out as being from a particular country or genre of music.”

The following pieces, “Last Night the Moon Came”, and “Blue Period/Light on Water”, performed live in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 2009, come from his most recent album, “Last Night the Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes in the Street” (a line from Rumi).

On Public Radio International, Hassell describes the process, the allusions, and the musical theory that underpins his Fourth World music.

To learn more, visit Jon Hassell’s web site.