Jon Hassell / Farafina - Flash Of The Spirit [Tak:til / Glitterbeat Promo]

Upcoming on the Glitterbeat sub- / sister label Tak:til is the first ever official re-issue edition of "Flash Of The Spirit", the 1987 conjunctional album effort created by Jon Hassell as a collaborator within the context of Burkina Faso's world renowned outfit Farafina which had also worked with the likes of the Rolling Stones or Ryuichi Sakamoto before this album came to be. With the 2020 release due for February 7th, 2k20 we see the album not only back on the circuit in its original musical form but also being remastered to provide a new view on the densely arranged, polyrhythmic and multilayered classic of the so-called Fourth World movement which sees Hassell's avantgarde informed, oftentimes reprocessed trumpet playing seamlessly merge with the rich sound of Farafina, a far more complex musical venture than the often used term World Music / Ethnic Music / Afrobeat could ever describe correctly. Defo a gem for followers of Contemporary Fusion Music and a dreamy, transcendent and surely unique sonic experience of a kind albeit, and maybe this is due to the original master recording quality of the material, the depth and dynamic range of the album might not necessarily please the audiophile community out there as the general sound quality seems to be a little blurred and muffled which, on the one side, seems to go hand in hand with hypnotic, Psychedelia-infused vibe of the music yet, on the other hand, poses the question if a little more emphasis on and sculpting of the mid- and high frequency could've added even more value to this re-release. Maybe someone is up for doing a one on one comparison with the original release at some point?