On May 23, 2015, at St John at Hackney Church in London's Hackney district, Jon Hassell performed as a trio with Rick Cox and John von Seggern. No one in attendance marked the date as anything special, but it would turn out to be Hassell's last time on stage.
A decade later, that performance is becoming an album. Ndeya, the label Hassell founded during his lifetime, has announced the release of Music Is Invisible (Pentimento Volume Three) on October 2 — his first new work since his passing in 2021, and the closing chapter of his final trilogy, following 2018's Listening to Pictures and 2020's Seeing Through Sound.
The four tracks — "Blue Ba-Ya," "Club Gris-Gris," "Broadway Boogie-Woogie," and "Electric Forest" — were edited and mixed by Jeff Rona, going far beyond the typical soundboard-recorded live album approach to carefully reshape and refine the tracks. According to the label's press release, themes, motifs, and phrase variations from the previous two albums recur throughout the record — echoing the very meaning of "pentimento": the way older images and brushstrokes in a painting subtly resurface beneath layers of paint applied over them. This was exactly how Hassell approached his own music during his lifetime, revising, layering, and revisiting his past work again and again.
Hassell passed away naturally on June 26, 2021, at the age of 84, following prolonged health issues. Beyond his identity as a composer, he left his mark on music through his concept of "Fourth World" aesthetics — which he described as sound that "unifies the primitive and the futuristic," blending world ethnic styles with advanced electronic technology. His 1977 album Vernal Equinox is still ranked among the greatest ambient records of all time.
So far, only a clip of the single "Blue Ya-Ya" and a black-and-white live video have been released for Music Is Invisible (Pentimento Volume Three). The album will be available for pre-order through outlets including Rough Trade.
