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Aka/Darbari/Java: Magic Realism is a 1983 album by American trumpet player and composer Jon Hassell, released on the label Editions EG. It was co-produced by Daniel Lanois and features Abdou M'Boup on drums.[1]

Aka/Darbari/Java: Magic Realism
Studio album by Jon Hassell
Released	1983
Recorded	1982
Studio	Grant Avenue Studios, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Genre	World, ambient
Length	44:10
Label	Editions EG EGED 31
Producer	Jon Hassell, Daniel Lanois
Jon Hassell chronology
Dream Theory in Malaya (1981) Aka/Darbari/Java: Magic Realism (1983) Power Spot (1986)

Background

The album features Hassell manipulating and looping fragments of sampled sound.[2] In the liner notes, Hassell describes the album as "a proposal for a 'coffee-colored' classical music of the future."[3]

The cover painting is by Mati Klarwein.[1]

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
The Village Voice	A−[3]

AllMusic's Brian Olewnick described the album as "an insinuating blend of early-'80s high tech with ancient Southeast Asia," calling it "an early high-water mark at the juncture between world and ambient musics."[1] For The Village Voice, Robert Christgau called it "dandy background music--more fluid and organic than Dream Theory in Malaya if also more amorphous than his first Eno collaboration."[3]

In his 1995 book Ocean of Sound, David Toop writes that on Aka/Darbari/Java "the perfume of ethnopoetics was supplemented by parallels with literature and the advanced technology of hyperreality."[2]

Tracklist

All tracks composed by Jon Hassell unless otherwise noted.

1. "Empire I" - 2:00
2. "Empire II" (Hassell, Daniel Lanois) - 4:53
3. "Empire III" - 7:09
4. "Empire IV" - 5:13
5. "Empire V" - 3:40
6. "Darbari Extension I" - 13:52
7. "Darbari Extension II" - 7:23

Personnel

• Jon Hassell - trumpet, keyed voices and instruments, treatments, producer
• Daniel Lanois - recording engineer, mixing and treatments, co-producer
• Abdou M'Boup - drums
• Bob Lanois, Michael Brook, John Forbes - assistance (Toronto)
• Bruno Planet - drum recording engineer (Paris)
• Greg Calbi - mastering
• Jean-Michel Reusser - project coordinator
• Mati Klarwein - artwork
• Paula Greif - design
• Wynn Dan - design assistant

References

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