Sun Gong/Bring on the Sun

Four decades ago, zitherist Edward Larry Gordon made his debut on a small US label. Then, renamed Laraaji, he collaborated with Brian Eno on the epochal Ambient 3: Day of Radiance in 1980. Fifty albums later, Laraaji still mines that rich instrumental seam on a pair of releases (available both separately and together), combining ideas and instruments from around the globe with subtle electronics.

Sun Gong and half of Bring on the Sun are meditative, cinematic voyages. After an opening track of ambient zither bliss, the second is more intriguing with the addition of bluesy harmonica. On the third track, things start to unravel as Laraaji yodels and chants over a churchy organ. The nadir is ‘Change’, a seven-minute acoustic folk song where he repeats bromides like ‘change by any other name is change’ and whines like a dog. The most compelling vocal piece is ‘Reborn in Virginia’, a spoken-word childhood recollection over a bed of tabla, tambura and harp.

On the companion disc, ‘Sun Gong No 2’ stands out as one of Laraaji's most exciting works ever – a tone poem of storms and rituals. Reverberating gongs are underpinned by kalimba, Peruvian shakers, Tibetan cymbals and electronics reminiscent of Jon Hassell's ‘fourth world music.’ These instrumentals would have made a powerful album on their own, with the vocal experiments fenced off as a separate EP for diehard fans.