Listening to Pictures

Listening to Pictures is a studio album by Jon Hassell. It was released on his own record label, Ndeya, on June 8, 2018.^[9] It peaked at number 34 on the UK Dance Albums Chart,^[10] as well as number 34 on the UK Independent Albums Chart.^[11]

Listening to Pictures
Studio album by Jon Hassell
Released	June 8, 2018 (2018-06-08)
Studio	Studio Venice, California
Genre	Avant-garde
Length	38:41
Label	Ndeya
Producer	Jon Hassell
Jon Hassell chronology
Last Night the Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes in the Street (2009) Listening to Pictures (2018) Seeing Through Sound (2020)

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	84/100[1]
Review scores
Source	Rating
All About Jazz	[2]
Exclaim!	8/10[3]
The Guardian	[4]
The Independent	[5]
Pitchfork	7.3/10[6]
Resident Advisor	4.0/5[7]
Vice (Expert Witness)	A−[8]

Critical reception

At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 84% based on 10 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".^[1]

John Lewis of The Guardian gave the album 4 stars out of 5, saying, "Hassell's electronic soundscapes recall the work of Oneohtrix Point Never, Boards of Canada or Aphex Twin."^[4] He added, "Hassell is into exploring the multiple layers that exist in his sound, what he calls 'vertical listening' – and this is certainly dense, endlessly mutating music that rewards multiple listenings."^[4] Dave Beech of The Independent gave the album 4 stars out of 5, saying, "it's not an album that strives for immediacy, but is best soaked in over multiple listens."^[5] Robert Ham of Pitchfork gave the album a 7.3 out of 10, saying: "Its eight tracks are teeming with strands of melody and unbound rhythms that have been meticulously constructed into groaning towers of sound."^[6]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Jon Hassell.

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Dreaming"	6:08
2.	"Picnic"	5:58
3.	"Slipstream"	2:54
4.	"Al Kongo Udu"	5:12
5.	"Pastorale Vassant"	3:59
6.	"Manga Scene"	5:44
7.	"Her First Rain"	1:38
8.	"Ndeya"	7:06

Personnel

Credits adapted from liner notes.

Musicians Jon Hassell – trumpet, keyboards, orchestration Rick Cox – guitar, synthesizer, electronics John von Seggern – bass guitar, drums, electronics Hugh Marsh – electric violin, electronics Peter Freeman – bass guitar, electronics (2, 3, 7) Ralph Cumbers – drum programming (2) Christoph Harbonnier – bass guitar (3) Christian Jacob – bass guitar (3) Michel Redolfi – electronics (3) Eivind Aarset – electric guitar, sampler (8) Kheir-Eddine M'Kachiche – violin, sampler (8)

Technical personnel Jon Hassell – production Rick Cox – co-production Matthew Jones – executive production Britton Powell – coordination Al Carlson – mastering Arnaud Mercier – additional mastering Valgeir Sigurðsson – additional mastering Dan Kuehn – art direction Arien Valizadeh – art direction Taska Cleveland – art direction Mati Klarwein – album art sources, inspiration Petra Gehrmann – publishing

Charts

Chart	Peak position
UK Dance Albums (OCC)[10]	34
UK Independent Albums (OCC)[11]	34