RASA

SERENE TIMELESS JOY

  1/  Shinning Stone (Watu Jilang)               (Laswell)                     60.30

          Recordings from Borobudur, Java and Monkey Forest, Bali - Indonesia
          Mixing and additional recording at Orange Music, West Orange, New Jersey
          Engineered by Robert Musso
          Produced and arranged by Bill Laswell
          Concept by Janet Rienstra

Bill Laswell: soundscapes, bass.

          1999 - Meta Records (USA), MT004 (CD)
          1999 - Limited Edition Private Press (CD) 
          2018 - Bill Laswell Bandcamp (digital)

Note: The limited edition version is a signed private press edition that was available at Steven Saporta's gallery exhibition and from Downtown Music Gallery, NYC.

REVIEWS :

_Rasa_ may just be Bill Laswell愀 finest exercise in True Ambient ever. Layered over soundscapes captured at the Buddhist monument Borobudur and its surrounding sacred mountains in Java, magical tones, bell-like loops and soft tom-toms develop organically for a full hour. Rich and varied, it evolution is both linear and cyclical. The piece quite simply "breathes", in the way in which a classic Vidna Obmana record does. Wave upon wave of sonic stillness washes up and recedes, only to reveal new and unexpected charms. And interestingly for a Laswell album, the bass doesn愒 make its appearance until the thirty-sixth minute, and then only as a brief interlude. Truly timeless music.

Stephen Fruitman