Edward Larry Gordon aka Laraaji was born in Philadelphia and started by studying piano, trombone and vocals. The street performances that are his work only came up later, during the 70s, in Park Slope in Brooklyn, Village and Upper West Side. “Village was my favourite space, but presently is less ‘hippiefied’ and more ‘gentrified’, as New York in general, as a matter of fact. I no longer see the experimental street performances I used to see back when I did them”. It was at that time that Brian Eno discovered him, on one of the nights he was playing at the Washington Square Park, inviting him then to record an album for his inspiring environmental series Ambient 3: Day of Radiance.

Laraaji has a fascinating life style, and yoga is a part of it since the 70s, when he started to explore meditation and experience “a deep feeling of inner peace. I sat down for hours, starting with a deep breath at the same time erasing all the titles, names, and classifications of my being, until I reached a state of peace and quiet, which had an important impact in my music and creativity”. He decided meditation would be the pillar of his life and thus a new style of music emerged based in improvisation and inner meditation “That period took me to explore an electric zither, a portable instrument, very easy to play outdoors, and that lead me to create what I call groovie or free flow music”.

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See also: MADEIRADig 2017