Hu Vibrational, the fresh, genre-transcending brainchild of world music pioneer Adam Rudolph, releases fifth album
TIMELESS, due out November 17, 2023 via Meta Records, offers a tantalizing mix of multi-kulti-trance-groove-meditational dance music in an audiophile gatefold vinyl package
as well as digital formats
"Earth heartbeating, modern day mysticism & star gazing ritualism from Hu Vibrational aka musical polymath Adam Rudolph, aided by the cream of New York's esoteric instrument players who add a further culturally diverse twist to this already outernational journey through kosmische tribalism, universal resonances & Fourth World perpetuation.” – The Slow Music Movement Blog
Album release concerts November 18 at Public Records, Brooklyn, NY
December 16 at Solar Myth, Philadelphia, PA
Looking for some fresh and innovative soundscapes? Hu Vibrational's fifth album Timeless puts forth nine tracks of gorgeously rich and densely textured music. The spiritually intoxicating grooves of Hu Vibrational are the brainchild of Adam Rudolph, who calls them “Boonghee Music” — a cascade of world-inspired beats mixed with jazz, hip-hop and electronica. The result is music that thrives on the balance of simultaneously reaching backwards and forwards in time.
While Timeless finds Rudolph playing most of the instruments, he is joined on several tracks by some of his longtime associates: Norwegian guitar sound painter Eivind Aarset, drummer Hamid Drake, and several members of his Go: Organic Orchestra. Moroccan percussionist Brahim Fribgane and North Indian performers Neel Murgai (sitar) and Sameer Gupta (tabla) bring unique sounds that Rudolph weaves into the compositional fabric. Hu Vibrational combines world music with electronica and improvised jazz to create music that is funky, spiritual, hardcore, and soothing.
With Rudolph employing his “organic” orchestrations, arrangements, and electronic processing to shape the compositions, he works with his musicians in his “sonic mandala” concept to build layers of percussion, electronics and otherworldly sounds. Beats are the core, and influences range far and wide, yet these influences only provide a foundation. “Orchestration is the key” says Rudolph. “In the creative process of making this recording, I was looking for new ways of balancing the rhythmic elements I use with innovative colorations. As Don Cherry used to say ‘the swing is in the sound’.”
This audiophile LP was beautifully mixed and mastered by James Dellatacoma, Bill Laswell’s (and Rudolph’s) longtime engineer at Laswell’s Orange Studio. The gatefold album opens onto nine gorgeous pen and watercolor paintings by Nancy Jackson that, like the art of Robert Crumb, are both humorous and deeply philosophical. It is the second time Rudolph and his wife Ms. Jackson have collaborated, the first being the 1995 book and CD release The Dreamer, an opera inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche’s “The Birth of Tragedy."
Those primarily familiar with Rudolph’s recent releases with his 30+ piece Go: Organic Orchestra, like their collaboration with Brooklyn Raga Massive (Ragmala, Meta 023), or his spontaneous composition trio with Tyshawn Sorey and Dave Liebman (New Now, Meta 027), or even his 2021 electronic soundscape with Bennie Maupin (Strut Records), might find in the music on Timeless a whole other direction. But, as Rudolph states, “With each release I try to do something I have never done before.” This is no small claim for an artist who has released over 35 recordings featuring his compositions and percussion work.
Besides leading his own ensembles, Go: Organic Orchestra and Moving Pictures, Rudolph is known for his work over the last four plus decades with innovators such as Yusef Lateef, Don Cherry, Jon Hassel, and Pharaoh Sanders among others.
Rudolph was hailed by the New York times as “an innovator in World Music” and indeed his experience is long and varied; In 1978 he co-founded, with Foday Musa Suso, the Mandingo Griot Society, one of the first groups to combine African and American music and in 1988 he recorded the first fusion of American and Moroccan Gnawa music with sintir player Hassan Hakmoun.
Rudolph’s creative methodology and philosophy has been outlined in two books, “Pure Rhythm” (2006) and “Sonic Elements” (2022). The compositional concepts are applied in all his creative output: from his through composed string quartets to his newest Hu Vibrational release. Rudolph notes: “The underlying elements are the same, like a kind of musical DNA. They come to life in the context of the what it is I wish to express at the time — it has nothing to do with style - it has to do with the creative impulse - what needs to be allowed to come forth in the moment.”
© Jaci Downs
PRAISE FOR HU VIBRATIONAL
“Hu Vibrational is all about communing with the groove spirits and creating worlds where earthy rhythms and other-worldly sounds are one. The end results are mesmerizing.” – All Music Guide
“You can be sure that when Adam Rudolph and an ensemble of breathtaking musicians get together mystical and wonderful things will happen.” – Raul da Gama, jazzdagama.com
“A stunning effort, enjoyable and grows with repeated listening.” – Stefan Wood, Freejazzcollective
HU: VIBRATIONAL - TIMELESS
BOONGHEE MUSIC 5
Compositions, organic orchestrations, arrangements, and electronic processing by Adam Rudolph
Published by Migration Music BMI
Recorded by James Dellatacoma at Orange Sound Studio and Adam Rudolph at Clear Lake Studio, New Jersey
Mixed and mastered by James Dellatacoma
Art and words/poetry by Nancy Jackson
Design by Sylvain Leroux
Produced by Adam Rudolph assisted by Mas Yamagata and Carlos Nino
Adam Rudolph – keyboards, thumb pianos, marimbula, cajon, mbuti harp, mouth bow, vocal, slit drums, udu drums, wooden and bamboo flutes, double reeds, gongs, kudu horn, zither, caxixi, kongos, tarija, gankogoui, bells, percussion
with
Alexis Marcelo – fender rhodes, organ (Hittin, Proto Zoa Gogo)
Brahim Fribgane – tarija (Oceanic)
Damon Banks – bass (Hittin, Proto Zoa Gogo)
Eivind Aarset – guitar and electronics (Serpentine,Timeless, Honey Honey, Proto Zoa Gogo, Psychic)
Hamid Drake – drum set (Space, Oceanic, Hittin, Jammin, Proto Zoa Gogo)
Harris Eisenstadt – bata (Hittin, Timeless)
Jan Bang – sampling (Timeless, Honey Honey, Psychic)
Kaoru Watanabe – noh kan flute (Proto Zoa Gogo)
Marco Cappelli – guitar (Hittin)
Munyungo Jackson – tambourine, shekere (Oceanic)
Neel Murgai – sitar (Hittin)
Sameer Gupta – tabla (Space, Timeless)
Catalog # META 028LP
Available at metarecords.com and metarecords.bandcamp.com
https://huvibrational.bandcamp.com/album/timeless
