Illuminated Audio is essentially a remix album of the Ethiopian singer’s self titled debut, completely reworked by Laswell alone in his New Jersey studio. Taking the more funk, hip-hop and R&B rooted original mix, he mutated the sounds into a tapestry of deep percussive ambient and heavy dub.
Originally released on CD in 2003; Bill Laswell’s dubbed-out, psychedelic re-imagination of Gigi’s self titled debut album, which originally featured heavyweight session players Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Pharaoh Sanders.
Brought to his attention by mentor DJ Nori, Time Capsule’s Ken Hidaka describes Illuminated Audio as a “masterful sonic exploration into ethereal ambience and dub” and made sure this reissue also contained a full remaster to give its “deep musicality” much better dynamics and density in the overall sound. Hidaka admits that Laswell’s music “is sometimes so out-there, it is often misunderstood” and, indeed, to dub album non-believers this might seem like a prolific producer imposing himself on another artist’s work; eternally developing rearrangements that never quite get to its destination. But that’s missing its true power and triumph. This is more than the reissue of a remix, but “a wholly unique musical entity”, as Hidaka describes. Illuminated Audio refers to the illuminated manuscripts that comprise the major part of Ethiopian art and its new compositions stand in proud solitude as a rare body of reworks that both informs and enhances their originals.
Check out our full review of “Illuminated Audio” with additional stream links and hi-resolutions scans in the ISC Collection.