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)

REVIEWS :

_Rasa_ may just be Bill Laswell´s 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´t make its appearance until the thirty-sixth minute, and then only as a brief interlude. Truly timeless music.

Stephen Fruitman