The Mystery of the Yeti | ||||
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Studio album | ||||
Released | 21 October 1996 | |||
Genre |
Goa trance Chill-out music |
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Length | 56:57 | |||
Label | TIP Records | |||
chronology | ||||
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The Mystery of the Yeti is a Goa trance concept album conceived and arranged by Ron Rothfield (a.k.a. Raja Ram). It was collaboratively produced by Raja Ram and Graham Wood of The Infinity Project; Stéphane Holweck, Loïc Van Poucke, and Serge Souque (the founding members of Total Eclipse); and Simon Posford (aka Hallucinogen).
The Mystery of the Yeti was an early and influential concept album in psychedelic trance music. Three years after recording it, all the Mystery of the Yeti artists, except for Graham Wood, collaborated on a follow-up album: The Mystery of the Yeti, Part 2 (1999).
In 2004, Raja Ram's record label TIP.World Records re-released The Mystery of the Yeti and The Infinity Project's Mystical Experiences (1995) as a double album.
The Mystery of the Yeti is the musical score to a short story written by Raja Ram and trance DJ Chicago (both of whom were later among the members of 1200 Micrograms). The story, called "Who or What Is the 'Yeti'?", is printed in the liner notes of the album. Each of the album's four tracks conveys a part of the story.
In twelve Himalayan villages, twelve "elder mystics" each dream that there is a connection between the yeti and extraterrestrial life. With visions to guide them, the elders lead 2000 people from their upland villages higher into the mountains by starlight. At dawn, they sound bejeweled dungchen (long trumpets) to accompany the chants of om by the monks who remain in the villages below. When the echoes recede, the elders sound a gong and merrily continue their journey.