Laraaji

Laraaji ranks among new age’s most singular, productive, and magnetic figures. Working primarily with an electronically treated zither plus hammered dulcimer, kalimba, synthesizers, piano, assorted other instruments, natural sounds, and vocals, the multi-instrumentalist fashions extended, contemplative sonic tapestries. Exposure arrived in the early 1980s through an unplanned encounter with ambient pioneer Brian Eno, who produced the landmark Ambient 3: Day of Radiance in 1980; since then Laraaji has issued a vast number of cassettes and albums that stretch from the mantra-inflected synth pop of Vision Songs, Vol. 1 (1984) to the sustained drones of Essence/Universe (1987). He has also joined forces with electronic, experimental, rock, and dub artists such as Japanese dub crew Audio Active on The Way Out Is the Way In (1995), Bill Laswell on Divination’s Sacrifice (1998), and Philadelphia duo Blues Control for FRKWYS Vol. 8 (2011). Solo projects including Sun Gong (2017) and the pair Sun Piano and Moon Piano (2020) spotlight one instrument at a time. Reissues and rediscoveries continue, exemplified by the 2023 box set Segue to Infinity, while fresh collaborations such as Baptismal (with Kramer) keep appearing. Outside recording, he remains widely recognized for his Laughter Meditation Workshops.

Born Edward Larry Gordon in Philadelphia in 1943, he grew up in New Jersey studying multiple instruments and voice before attending Howard University in Washington, D.C., on a music scholarship. He later relocated to New York City hoping to work as an actor and comedian, yet immersion in Eastern mysticism redirected his path. Finding a zither at a neighborhood pawn shop, he developed an idiosyncratic sound via electronic modification and nontraditional techniques. Under his birth name he issued Celestial Vibration on the small SWN label in 1978 and began performing on New York sidewalks and in parks. Brian Eno encountered one such performance and left a card in the instrument case, leading to production of Gordon’s first widely distributed album, Ambient 3: Day of Radiance, released on EG Records in 1980. Credited to Laraaji, the record juxtaposed hypnotic, gamelan-style hammered-dulcimer rhythms with calmer zither-based ambient passages.

The album’s reception brought commissions from meditation ensembles. Laraaji subsequently released many cassette tapes of long, seamless pieces alongside occasional avant-garde synth-pop devotional tracks, as heard on Vision Songs, Vol. 1 (1984). He deepened his spiritual practice under Swami Satchidananda and Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati, and teamed with Sound Healers Association founder Jonathan Goldman for the 1986 cassette Celestial Realms on Spirit Music. His next vinyl outing, Essence/Universe, appeared on Audion Recording Company in 1987, produced by Robert Ashman. Two tracks contributed to Music for Films, Vol. 3 on Eno’s Opal Records in 1988. All Saints Records began issuing his music in the early 1990s with Flow Goes the Universe (1992), co-produced by Michael Brook. Laraaji joined the supergroup Channel Light Vessel alongside Bill Nelson, Roger Eno, Kate St. John, and Mayumi Tachibana; the quintet released Automatic on All Saints in 1994 and Excellent Spirits (without Tachibana) in 1996. Additional projects from that era include the 1995 album The Way Out Is the Way In with Japanese dub group Audio Active and the live split CD Islands with Roger Eno, recorded at a 1989 festival.

Cascade emerged on the Relaxation Company in 1997. The following year he played zither on Sacrifice, an album by Bill Laswell’s ambient project Divination issued by Meta Records. Further work with Jonathan Goldman yielded Celestial Reiki (2000) and Celestial Reiki II (2002), both on Spirit Music. My Orangeness was recorded on an Italian farm with local musicians in 2001. Collaborations with Phil Gruber on The Song of Indra and with Nadi Burton on Sonic Sketches both appeared in 2006; otherwise most releases that decade were self-released solo CD-Rs. Universal Sound reissued Celestial Vibration on CD and LP in 2010.

A 2011 partnership with Philadelphia experimental-rock duo Blues Control produced the eighth volume in RVNG Intl.’s FRKWYS series, introducing Laraaji to fresh listeners and prompting reissues of earlier material. In 2013 All Saints combined Flow Goes the Universe and The Way Out Is the Way In as the double-CD Two Sides of Laraaji while also releasing the anthology Celestial Music 1978–2011, drawing from self-released tapes and better-known albums. A 12-inch EP of remixes by Sun Araw, Motion Sickness of Time Travel, and others surfaced on All Saints in 2014. Leaving Records compiled three early cassettes as All in One Peace in 2015, while Glitterbeat reissued Ambient 3: Day of Radiance. The double live album Professional Sunflow with Sun Araw appeared on W.25TH in 2016; Leaving Records simultaneously reissued the 1984 cassette Om Namah Shivaya on orange vinyl and issued the triple-cassette set Be Still and Glow. Sun Gong and Bring on the Sun both arrived in September 2017. Vision Songs, Vol. 1 received its first wide release via Numero Group in early 2018. Arrive Without Leaving, a collaboration with Arji OceAnanda and Dallas Acid, emerged on Flying Moonlight Records later that year. Celestial Realms was reissued on vinyl by Morning Trip in early 2019, while the triple-LP The Onrush of Eternity, a dub project with log(m) (aka Legion of Green Men), appeared on Invisible, Inc. around the same time. Further joint work produced Dreams of Sleep and Wakes of Sound with Merz and Shahzad Ismaily. Returning to his first instrument, Laraaji issued the solo albums Sun Piano and Moon Piano in 2020, later expanded with additional material as the cassette box The Piano Trilogy.

“Infinite Sun,” a collaboration with Carlos Niño and Superposition, surfaced in 2021. Work with Arji OceAnanda and Christopher Bono’s NOUS ensemble resulted in Circle of Celebration. The limited cassette All Things Beautiful appeared in early 2022 alongside a merchandise collaboration with Online Ceramics. Additional releases that year included the EP A Surplus of Absurdity with log(m) and Meditation: You Are Relaxed, an AI-generated soundscape project with Endel. Segue to Infinity, a Numero Group vinyl box set containing Celestial Vibration plus six previously unheard side-long acetates from the same era, arrived in early 2023. Baptismal, an ambient-symphony collaboration with Kramer, was released on Shimmy-Disc in June.