By now, the stories of Sheltering Sky author Paul Bowles and other Beat-generation figures traveling to Morocco in the late '50s/early '60s aren't exactly lacking in mystique. In his introduction to the liner notes for this 4-disc box, former Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo references a widely circulated group photo of Bowles along with William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, and others taken on the patio of the Villa Muniria hotel in Tangier. Of course, the North African desert would become almost synonymous with Bowles' storied career. But for him, Morocco was also the place he would call home for the rest of his life.

Long considered a 20th-century literary giant, Bowles actually pursued a career in composition prior to (and even after) the success of *The Sheltering Sky, *which was his first novel. Bowles, in fact, visited Morocco for the first time in 1931 on a trip with Aaron Copland, under whom he was studying composition at the time. And though he changed lanes professionally, Bowles continued to nurture a profound interest in music, which is made abundantly clear by this set. Of course, the author occupies a central role here, having recorded all four discs himself over a six-month period in 1959 during which he criss-crossed Morocco, but thankfully he keeps his focus trained strictly on the music and the cultural currents from which it emerged.

"For years, I composed music," Bowles can be heard saying at the beginning of the 1993 documentary* Un Américain à Tanger*. "Then, suddenly, I decided to write books instead... There’s nothing to say about either the music or the books. I hate talking about myself. I’ve got nothing to say." In another documentary, 1998’s Let It Come Down: The Life of Paul Bowles, the author says, "There was no violence in my life ever—maybe that’s why I gave up writing music."

Maybe so, but on Music of Morocco he has plenty to say. True to his word, though, he says almost nothing about himself. Though his voluminous notes, reprinted here from his own journal, do at times provide first-person accounts of his travels, they do so only to serve a better understanding of what you’re hearing. In fact, "understanding" might be an understatement. The thoroughness of Bowles’ ethnomusicological narration (not to mention the way project producer Philip D. Schuyler organizes and adds to that narration) more or less gives listeners a crash course in the social, historical, and musical basis for four-and-a-half-hours’ worth of music.

Originally released in 1972 as a (now long-out-of-print) 2-record set, this new presentation more than doubles the total runtime, restoring each individual performance to its original length—a crucial difference considering that several of these pieces stretch to 10-15 minutes or more. Bowles separated the music into two major categories: the music of North Africa’s Berber people on one LP and Arab- and Sub-Saharan-influenced music on another. Schuyler, an ethnomusicologist on faculty at the University of Washington, explains that Bowles regarded Berber music and culture as reflective of the "real" Morocco and thought of the Arabic influence as an invasive "contagion."

Schuyler’s new track sequence remains faithful to Bowles’ delineation between those two musical strains, but he does point out that the Arab influence had been steeping in Morocco for a thousand years by the time Bowles arrived. (Schuyler got to consult with Bowles on the project before the author’s death in 1999.) And while it’s certainly not necessary to approach the liner notes as a textbook in order to enjoy the music, the uninitiated will undoubtedly have trouble distinguishing between sounds that Bowles had learned to tell apart. On the other hand, the running order at first comes across as disparate and somewhat disconnected—as if playback had been a secondary consideration.

But the musical variety proves to be an asset in the long run. You may not initially be able place the various rhythmic and harmonic modes that bob and weave in what at first seems like one giant pool of music. But the more you listen, the more you can discern how the various motifs inter-relate and complement one another. After a while, as you get acclimated and your hearing comes into better focus, the entire 4xCD swath starts to play less like a haphazard gumbo of sounds and more like a series of carefully laid-out fabrics.

Regardless, it requires zero background info to be struck right away by three key aspects: repetition, cadence, and the fluidity of North African melodic scales. Bowles and Schuyler expound at great length on all the above, but suffice it to say that much of this music induces a powerful hypnotic effect. In the 1970 documentary Paul Bowles in Morocco, the author recalls how he once saw a man walk into a Moroccan café where a group of musicians were playing. As the man grew more entranced by the music, he started to slash his own arms and legs with a knife—in rhythm as the musicians kept playing. While that’s certainly on the extreme end, it’s a good illustration of how transportive this music can be—not unlike the way American gospel or Haitian ceremonial music can move people into altered states.

Of course, Music of Morocco offers a deeply satisfying experience even if you don’t get that carried away. For some perspective: Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix significantly enriched their work when they trained their sights on North Africa, but their exposure was limited. When Bowles put his Alan Lomax hat on and made these tapes, he had lived in the country for well over a decade. Unfamiliar listeners will no doubt find the flow of this music alien, its meter unfolding in seemingly lopsided patterns the way separate sets of wooden chimes clatter randomly as the wind strikes them. But the form in that clatter becomes evident over time. Moreover, Bowles’ attention to detail shows that he didn’t just regard this stuff as brightly-colored wallpaper or background scenery, but as the living, breathing pulse of the place he chose to call home. When approaching this box, it pays to ditch your notions of how glamorous it was for emotionally desiccated, self-destructive figures like William Burroughs and late Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones to feed their habits in an "exotic" locale, the allure of the North African desert a mere backdrop in the arc of their crash-and-burn stories. Unlike his peers, Paul Bowles wasn’t content to just disappear into a cloud of hash smoke.

And so it makes sense that Music of Morocco is such an eye-opening, immersive document, the kind we’d expect from someone who’s spent time in a country getting to know its way of life but who could still make observations (or simply observe) as a guest. And if you’re a fan of Bowles’ novels, don’t expect the indulgent prose that’s all too typical of writers who can’t help but phrase everything as if they were reading aloud in front of an audience. Thankfully, as Schuyler explains, Bowles—a college dropout—didn’t identify as an academic, so he doesn’t come off as pedantic either. (One of the CD sleeves describes his writing as "spare, precise, and carefully assembled.") Because he didn’t lay it on thick in his journal, and because Schuyler refrains from fawning, the faux-leather, 120-page book that comes with this box actually works as standalone reading material that you'd want to keep at your bedside table or pack in your travel bag.

For a record label that’s built its reputation in large part on top-notch presentation standards, Dust-To-Digital, along with Rounder Records’ Bill Nowlin, have outdone themselves this time with a breathtaking package and sleek art direction courtesy of Barbara Bersche. If either you’ve lost sight of or continue to lament the disappearance of the physical object in recorded music, you couldn’t dream of a better reminder than this set. Words just don’t do justice to how it feels holding Music of Morocco in your hands, or to its stately elegance sitting on your shelf. And if you’re looking for an entry point into the soul of a people via its music, you simply can’t do better than Music of Morocco. Consider it essential regardless of your musical tastes or background.