Laraaji describes this set of tracks as "Contemplative sound painting, embracing quiet tranquil unfolding of nurturing reflection". In a recent interview with Aquarium Drunkard, Laraaji described the improvisatory process of making both piano albums: "I'd sit down, touch the piano and through free association, also blending it with my prepared mental state, I was able to tune in and affirm my highest sense of presence. The piano became an instrument for the imagination to suggest higher or finer worlds, to suggest a joy, euphoria, bliss, also to suggest silence, minimalism, relaxation, and contemplation. So, all of that music was spontaneous but with those influences shaping and guiding it along the way."
Whilst Moon Piano almost shades into melancholy with a contrasting nighttime vibe to Sun Piano's daytime joyfulness, certain themes from the first record reoccur - side two's "Pentatonic Smile" is a longer edit on the central riff underpinning the former album's "Temple Of New Light".
Sun Piano has been widely praised as a new phase in the new age icon's career in a wide range of influential outlets including NPR's All Songs Considered, Pitchfork, The Guardian Washington Post etc. Moon Piano is the second release in a trilogy which will culminate in an extended EP of piano/autoharp duets.
This Fall Laraaji will perform three unique livestream concerts presented by NYC's Le Poisson Rouge and NoonChorus. Attempting to mine the same improvisational spirit so present in his newest piano-based releases, each show will feature Laraaji exploring those recent themes again, riffing in real time and reaching new depths, all captured in the highest quality audio and video on LPR's beautiful corner stage.
Laraaji is a musician, mystic and laughter meditation practitioner based in New York City. Steeped in music from an early age, he grew up playing gospel and church music in 1950s New Jersey, and listening to R&B and jazz on the radio. To begin with he would imitate his favourite piano players, such as Fats Domino, Errol Garner, Ahmad Jamal and Oscar Peterson, before moving onto writing his own choral and doo-wop pieces whilst still in high school. From 1962 to 1964, he attended the groundbreaking Howard University in Washington DC where he studied music theory and composition with a piano major, and he met Curtis Mayfield, Donny Hathaway and Bobby Timmons. At college he took a left turn into comedy, which led him to the nightclub stand-up circuit in New York City. During this period he compered at the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem, warming up for artists such as Barry White and Roberta Flack, appeared in a theatre production alongside a young Morgan Freeman, and had a bit part in cult film Putney Swope wih Antonio Fargas.
By the early-70s he was working at the Aquarius Coffee Shop in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and playing Fender Rhodes electric piano in a fusion band, The Winds Of Change. In the mid-70s a spiritual awakening led him to trade his guitar in for an autoharp, and he began to play more freeform, cosmically inclined improvisations on the streets of New York City. Brian Eno saw him playing one night in Washington Square Park and invited him to record an album for his seminal Ambient series (Ambient 3: Day Of Radiance, released 1980).
In the 80s Laraaji self-released a prolific series of experimental home-recorded cassette albums which were sold on the street, in psychic bookstores and new age 'head shops'. An early proponent of the DIY tape underground that is still thriving today amongst artists working in noise, synth, drone and other left-of-the-dial genres, this period of Laraaji's music has been extensively reissued in the past few years by labels such as Leaving Records, Light In The Attic and Numero Group, and is a treasure trove of tape manipulated harp jams and space age soul hymns.
In the late-80s he made the much-loved Flow Goes The Universe album for All Saints Records (produced by Michael Brook) and contributed sound system style chants to an album by Japanese dub reggae outfit Audio Active. More recently he has appeared on recordings with Pharoah Sanders, Bill Laswell and Jonathan Wilson, and released collaborative albums with a younger generation of artists including Blues Control, Sun Araw and Dallas Acid. Appreciation of his music has reached new heights in the past few years resulting in international touring and the patronage of visual artists such as Grace Wales Bonner. His most recent albums for All Saints were the related duo of Bring On The Sun and Sun Gong, produced by Carlos Niño. This also led to the remix set Sun Transformations, featuring re-interpretations of his work by contemporary beatmakers such as the late Ras G, DNTEL, Flako, Photay, and his lifelong friend, disco legend Larry Mizell.
The new piano trilogy, which started with the release of Sun Piano back in July, opens up a new chapter in Laraaji's musical history; both completing a circle that began in his childhood, and revealing a whole new side to his sound to longtime listeners, showing off a different side of his instrumental accomplishments, and an innate ability toward spontaneous composition that has been honed over many years.
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