Late last year Seance Centre released a collection of cuts, entitled Many Worlds Interpretation,  rescued from the archives of Californian musician Jon Iverson. While the music – based around traditional sounding woodwinds and plucked and picked acoustic guitar – seemed to have its roots in folk, some of it, well, most of it, was a bit more way out. The sometimes fiery instrumentals, a marvelous marriage of new age and a kinda cosmic jazz. Shaking their syncopated stuff somewhere in the middle of the wonderful Brothers Woo, and, pioneering kosmische band, Between. Jon’s computers creating ceremonial dances of chimes and whistles, while 6-strings sequences shimmer with a sitar-like buzz. The synths emitting moody, mysterious Middle Eastern melodies. The electronic pulses partnered with tons of tribal hand-percussion. Everything selected sort of building up to, paving the way, for the final offering, River Fen. 

Then, this February, the Canadian label followed-up by releasing re-imaginings of Iverson’s work, commissioned from artists associated with the Swedish imprint, Fasaan. The team of Prins Emanuel, Golden Ivy, and Inre Kretsen Grupp, combined in a group effort, adding a long list of new instrumentation – including flute, kalimba, lap steel, pump organ, and violin. Fernweh couples tiny, tinny clockwork chimes to busy organic rhythms. Drum Steel introduces cold wave keys and new wave guitar, to create something that surely would have been a big hit at Daniele Baldelli’s Cosmic Club. Weird, and wobbly, Kaen places Steve Reich-ian piano repetition over chunky, chugging, cowbell-led funk. There are stirring cinematic synths, and juice harp gyrations. Lush lapping tides of dynamic dubbed-out percussion. The resulting flickering fourth world drum rituals should all find favour with fans of folks such as Deep Nalstrom, Shelter, and RamZi. The closing, Dopa Yepa, for example, is a Jon Hassell-esque heat-haze, that summons scenes of wildlife at an African watering hole. A huge sun slowly rising on some unspoiled savannah. 

Jon Iverson’s Many Worlds Interpretation and Jon Iverson meets Prins Emanuel, Golden Ivy & Inre Kretsen Grupp can both be purchased directly from Seance Centre.