Ìxtahuele
Eden Ahbez's Dharmaland
PUT THIS IN YOUR DEN if you like your jazz on the eclectic side. Take some jazz, toss in some tiki music, a bit of hammock jams, a hefty portion of psychedelia, a pinch of "world music", another pinch of later Leonard Cohen, and a fistful of quirk - and you'll have Dharmaland, sort of!
Available on limited edition black vinyl 2LP, gatefold sleeve with printed inner bags including liner notes and photos
Eden Ahbez’s “Dharmaland,” arranged and performed by Ìxtahuele, is the first-ever recording of this long-lost masterwork by the original hippie composer of “Nature Boy.” Resurrected from Ahbez’s unrecorded sheet music, c. 1961-63, Ìxtahuele has woven an enchanted tapestry of mystic exotica and experimental pop that re-establishes the songwriter as a forefather of psychedelic music and brings his work into the present. They are joined by a host of guest artists, including nine of Ahbez’s friends and former collaborators, as well as contemporary performers Kadhja Bonet, Xenia Kriisin, and King Kukulele. The composer’s own handmade drums and bamboo flutes also appear throughout the recordings. As author Domenic Priore writes: “‘Dharmaland’ is to Eden Ahbez what ‘Smile’ was to Brian Wilson.”