jonhassell.com

(under development)

to view you will need the flash plug-in you will also need QuickTime 6.0

INTRODUCTION TO “ATMOSPHERICS”

Having had an early presence on a long-defunct but innovative website called “hyperfuzzy” (1994), and thereafter having passed through the phase in which I thought that the only distinction left was to NOT have a website, the pleasure I'm having in discovering the possibilities of this hybrid form —some blend of a written autobiography and a video documentary—makes me wish I hadn't waited so long.

The dates that you see in the horizontal bar correspond to the release date of each of my major recordings—the magnetic core of two or three years’ worth of living. Of course, a lot happened before the first record and a lot has happened since the last one and I intend to cover that later in some kind of After and Before sections.

In trying to fully understand anyone, or anything, I've always wanted to get a feel for the physical and psychic landscape of the time: what kind of light was in the room or in the forest, what sounds and smells were in the air, what families and friends looked like, whether there were animals and children around, what were they eating, what was funny, what was sexy, what was sad—in other words, the "atmospherics" of a situation.

Wanting to escape the usual dry, self-promotion of these things (websites), I've opted for some wet self-promotion, hoping that a casual visitor might find the atmospherics intriguing enough to want to hear a fuller version of the music in their light . Eventually, I intend to offer interesting new CD’s in special editions which will represent a “director’s cut” of heard and unheard tracks, arranged unstrictly according to my own taste, free from the distorting lens of middlemen.

What a great chance to edit my life. Whatever other features may show up later, these highly personal narratives will most probably remain the core of the site. Gradually, I'm pushing myself away from the internal memo that, "I'm doing a website" toward, "I'm making a piece for the internet."