Laraaji -Bring On The Sun / Sun Gong album review

Ambient maverick’s two-album sunny delight

Laraaji -Bring On The Sun album artwork

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Most people probably only know Edward Larry Gordon’s music through his 1980, Brian Eno-produced Day Of Radiance. Yet subsequent releases have proved an invaluable exploration of a fascinating sonic space that serenely floats between ambient, new age, electronic and world music. Bring On The Sun is initially familiar – wind chimes discretely shimmering in the background while luxuriant ripples of gently hammered zither ride off on plangent waves of echo. However, the album opens out into contrasting but thoroughly cohesive pieces that variously place harmonica, acoustic guitar and cavernous church organ in the foreground. The autobiographical spoken narrative on Reborn In Virginia, evoking Gordon’s early-1950s childhood in the backwoods, is suffused in sitar drones and ambling percussion, and it’s both beautiful and powerful.Sun Gong occupies more familiar Laraaji territory, containing two drone-style pieces garnered from close-mic’d overtones emanating from a gong which is made to bloom into swaying, harmonic clusters. The inclusion of a simple falsetto vocal melody toward the end of each piece brings an uplifting transcendence that’s simply a joy to hear.

Sid Smith

Sid's feature articles and reviews have appeared in numerous publications including Prog, Classic Rock, Record Collector, Q, Mojo and Uncut. A full-time freelance writer with hundreds of sleevenotes and essays for both indie and major record labels to his credit, his book, In The Court Of King Crimson, an acclaimed biography of King Crimson, was substantially revised and expanded in 2019 to coincide with the band’s 50th Anniversary. Alongside appearances on radio and TV, he has lectured on jazz and progressive music in the UK and Europe.  

A resident of Whitley Bay in north-east England, he spends far too much time posting photographs of LPs he's listening to on Twitter and Facebook.