Laraaji (aka Edward Larry Gordon) is an American musician (b. 1943) who, in the early seventies, started to study Eastern mysticism and to play a customized zither, converted to an electronic instrument. In 1979, Laraaji was playing in Washington Square Park in Manhattan. Brian Eno was in the audience and he was struck by the performance of this street musician. Brian Eno invited him to contribute to the Ambient series he was launching. The result was Ambient 3: Day of Radiance, a splendid album. Laraaji got an international exposure, and it was the starting point of an amazing career where the mystic quest was closely linked to musical explorations in the field of ambient and meditative music. One of the best introduction to his music is Essence / Universe, a splendid atmospheric album where electronic zither, chimes and voice are processed by delays and very long reverb and expand into a multimensional space. It is a fantastic album of very floating and spacy ambient music, a warm and soothing sonic surrounding for chilling out.
01. Essence
02. Universe


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