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Brion Gysin

One night @ 1001

Label: Sub Rosa

Format: double CD

Out of stock

As the inventor of the Dreamachine ("the first objects made to be viewed with closed eyes"), a prolific writer, painter and calligrapher, Brion Gysin also found time amongst his cramped schedule to set up a restaurant (The Thousand and One Nights) in Tangier, where he proceeded to provide a stage for the best in Moroccan groups specialising in exorcism or trance (particularly the Master Musicians of Joujouka who enjoyed an extended residency). An archive album comprised of these recordings, the first disc in this truly odd set sees some crackly field-tapes saved from oblivion and restored to some semblance of listenability - with strong rhythmical structures to the fore and native instrumentation blended to make a heady mix that captures the fervent atmosphere of the day with some success. However, whilst the first disc favours some semblance of normality, it is the second installment that really flexes the imagination - with Gysin and William Burroughs reading snippets of text inspired by the ancient rites of Pan and accompanied by a computer generated soundtrack that reacts to tone, pitch and rhythm in the spoken word. Odd doesn't go anywhere near summing this up...
Details
Cat. number: SR 142 CD
Year: 1970
Notes:
The first CD contains Jajouka and other traditional moroccan musicians specialized in exorcism and trance. These recordings were made by Brion Gysin in the early 1950s. The second CD contains Brion Gysin's personal take on a initiation ceremony in which he took part in the village of Jajouka around 1955. Accompanying sound was created by Ramuntcho Matta.