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Mercury Records SR 60147

Richard Hayman has here mustered his phenomenally versatile talents as musician,
arranger and conductor to capture the mood of voodoo in songs whose very titles
can strike awe in the listener: Conjuration . . . Spell of Deatra . . . Incantation . . .
Zombi. . . Midnight Ritual. . . Gris-Gris.  Here is a musical adventure that transports
you into the deepest interior of Haiti.  Here is the fearsome fire and the brewing pot.
Here are the frightening shadows. And here, above all, are the weird rhythms and
sounds of a music that is more than music because it is distilled in ritual and there
are those who believe in its magical powers.

This is music to be met half-way in a quiet room with the lights dimmed. Or better still
meet it all the way in the still of the night with the lights out. Then Listen!

You're not alone any longer. The room is shaken with the frantic dances of the
hungans - so-called priests of voodoo - and their faithful. The cauldron boils and
froths. The walls echo to the cries and the wails of the believers.

That's voodoo!

Lou Sidran