Milestone in the fusion of pop with World Music

After his divorce 2. Paul Simon ponders a long time about a significant change in his musical direction. When he finds a cassette with South African music in his hands, was the inspiration for him, a merger with his previous musical world to try. The result has become a landmark of the symbiosis of western pop music with African folklore, namely GRACELAND, which caused a sensation in 1986. The album was a bestseller, but also called on critics to the plan, the SIMON accused that he had violated his project against the boycott of the apartheid government of South Africa. In retrospect, this action was rather conducive to the culture and the musicians of the country. PAUL SIMON understands it, the exotic sound of South Africa to combine with western pop music so that the result appears elated and unsophisticated. He found with Cajun and Cydeco related ethnic sounds and built this as well into the overall picture, as the Tex-Mex sound of Los Lobos. Here the feat he has managed to make complex, almost incompatible tones sound belonging together as a matter of course. Also over the years GRACELAND has lost none of its fascination. On the contrary, the remastered version of 2012 revealed further details and also for sound gourmets a revelation. The album is a single bursting with ideas trip that takes the open-minded listener into a their sparkling, colorful, vibrant musical world.