We Carry Eden

 I was shocked when I learned that Hanyo van Oosterom, whose CHI projects had found a safe haven at Astral Industries for many years, would no longer be releasing on Ario Farahani's wonderful label. I suspected a major break, but I didn't read a thing about it. Quite the opposite. Hanyo only spoke with the utmost gratitude and respect about his time at AI, which has now come to an end. Well, shocked is perhaps too harsh a word. I was very surprised and would not have believed it possible, especially since it was clear that Hanyo's visions are far from over. For "Carry of Eden", Hanyo has found a more than respectable new home in Music from Memory. Whether he is allowed and wants to live there long-term, or whether he will lead a nomadic life from now on when it comes to releasing new projects, time will tell. At least the latter wouldn't be inappropriate. After all, that's exactly what his music is about. Basically. But what do I know.

Reviews:

Groove Magazin:

"The sound design unfolds intuitively throughout the entire 42 minutes, tucked between field recordings and tribal percussion, looped dialogues and prayers, distant calls and enchanting flutes – as if a brief, clear glimpse into another reality. The feeling of security in a deeply shattered world. Who couldn't use that". 

Test Pressing:

“Now we have some new music from Hanyo and longtime collaborator Omar Ka on the ever-essential Music From Memory. Water ebbs and flows. Marimba-propelled tempos quicken. Gentle bass reassures. Various voices come and go but the whole enterprise is underpinned by Omar's narrative. Life comes into focus”. 

Juno Records:

"We Carry Eden is an album so deep you can plunge right into it and forget the real world entirely. It melds drones, field recordings, dub, jazz and fourth world influences across a two-part composition that features storytelling by West African vocalist Omar Ka. Van Oosterom crafts textured soundscapes rooted in meditative grooves and spiritual depth and is inspired by Patmos and Hopi wisdom. He also weaves nature, myth and memory into a unified sonic journey".

Minimal Collective:

“Where meditative soundwork, nomadic storytelling and archival instinct converge, We Carry Eden unfolds as an elemental synergy. Son Of Chi builds space. Omar Ka brings voice. In this two-part composition, the Dutch ambient pioneer reunites with the Senegalese singer, finding a natural home on Music From Memory. The result hums with spiritual gravity, inviting slow immersion".

Funkentechno (David James):

"Awesome hearing the Dutch ambient wizard on Music From Memory now, exploring more dubbed out fourth world jazz territory in collage format, flowing episodically and stitched together by the voice of Omar Ka".

Boomkat:

"Sonically, the world of ‘We Carry Eden’ is fully immersive; it ripples with depth and shimmers in detail. Motifs, ideas and fragments, arise and disappear like passing thoughts, drawing the listener deeper and deeper inwards. For those familiar with Oosterom’s work as Chi Factory, the depth and meditative nature of the work will come as no surprise".

Ban Ban Ton Ton:

"A hallucinatory, peyote button heat haze where crows caw, cattle bells rattle and then the Sahara breaks down, shifts to somewhere Spanish, serenaded by crickets and cicadas. Language gets looped. The narration supplied by cosmic guides: Senegalese vocalist Omar Ka and Elders of the Native American Hopi Tribe. 

The music is like ECM jazz meets the drones of modern, digital ambient. Seamlessly weaving together different, separate sections. Snatches of woodwinds, traditional song, and patient piano ripples. Exploring Jon Hassell’s Fourth World with gentle electro-acoustics".

Space Age Lounge

 

Kim Cascone's "In a Garden of Eden", released under the moniker The Heavenly Music Corporation in 1993, would have suited me perfectly back then. Still lingering on the echoes of the second summer of love, this music designed for chill out rooms would have been exactly the balm for the soul that I needed. Well, it was 1993, FSOL's "Lifeforms" hadn't been released yet and there was still enough good music to satisfy my craving for ambient, ambient house & house. But the beats had already become harder everywhere, it was suddenly called rave and I increasingly missed the warmth and soul in “techno” music. Even the word techno sounded too cold to me.

But it wasn't until 2018 that I discovered this wonderful album through its re-release on the wonderful label Astral Industries (which deserves a post of its own just because of the fantastic artwork by Theo Ellsworth). HMC's third album was re-released there a year earlier. I don't understand why in this order. “Lunar Phase” also deserves its own post, later in this program.

„In 1989 Cascone became an assistant music editor for director David Lynch on „Twin Peaks“ and „Wild at Heart“. Musically he has used various aliases over the years but became best known under the moniker Heavenly Music Corporation, a name taken from a track on the record „No Pussyfooting by Brian Eno and Robert Fripp. Cascone released four full albums under this name from 1993 to 1996.“

„Originally realised at Cascone’s Silent studios in San Francisco for the Space Age Lounge, “a technomystical chill room in Goa, India”, his Heavenly Music Corporation debut is a typically balmy affair awash with tranquil synths and threaded with tropical field recordings to gently levitating effect.

It sounds very much of its time hearkening back to an era when phrases such as “technomystical chill room in Goa” were bandied around without irony, to a time of innocent MDMA experimentation and ISDN video links, right at the start of the internet, a utopian phase before it all went trip hop and everyone spent evenings waiting for webpages to load. Didgeridoos were very popular, too.

To be fair, you probably had to be there or else that period becomes a smudge of cliches as above, but it’s hard to fault the vibes and aura of Cascone’s recordings on ’In A Garden of Eden’. From the gentle swirl of cowbells and circular berthing synths in ‘Cloud Structure’, thru the patter of tropical rainfall in ‘Ambient To Be Here’, to the erotic gasps and ambient techno thump of the record’s title track and Steve Roach’s concluding acididgeridoo excursion, this album is pure paneer, but not without its nostalgic charms.“

-Boomkat-

„Not only is rhythm almost completely missing, but the instruments' drones are mixed with sounds of nature. This album will remain Cascone's most mature work. Organic, watery fluctuations and looping minimal synthesizer melodies (Cloud Structure Silence), stark cosmic landscapes à la early Klaus Schulze swept by icy electronic breezes (The Quiet Mind), suspenseful Steve Roach-y trances (Ambient To Be Here), pulsating Tangerine Dream-y quasar-rock (Dawn Chorus and Reentry, with Roach on didjeridoo) and even an intoxicating disco-raga (Beautiful Dream) represent a superb testament to what electronic music can do to the psyche, encompassing ambient, new age, psychedelic, progressive and world music. The 14-minute In A Garden Of Eden abuses of this technique, mixing water, animals, voices, exotic instruments and even a woman having an orgasm.“

-Piero Scaruffi-

https://www.discogs.com/release/12452982-Heavenly-Music-Corporation-In-A-Garden-Of-Eden