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2LP
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CMR 008LP
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LP version. "Fans of Sun Ra's Space Bop and genre-bending jazz were in for a shock with Strange Strings. Even in the eclectic and sometimes baffling Sun Ra catalog, Strange Strings is an outlier. It's primitive, it's sophisticated, but it's not a gradient of either. It's brutal, yet highly sensitive. Is it music, or just noise? Or noise as music? John Cage could not be reached for comment. For this album, Sun Ra collected an arsenal of exotic string instruments and handed them out to his Arkestra on the precept that 'strings could touch people in a special way.' That the Arkestrans didn't know how to play or tune these instruments was not beside the point -- it was the point. Ra framed it 'a study in ignorance.' The result was primitive, yet sophisticated; brutal, yet highly sensitive. In his essay for this expanded edition of the 1967 Saturn LP, musician-curator David Toop calls Strange Strings 'saturated in mystery.' The original 1967 Saturn LP version of Strange Strings was monophonic, contained three tracks, and suffered distortion in the mastering (perhaps due to the high-decibel studio performance and excessive reverb). Yet some sessions were captured in stereo. A dozen strange-string works have been located, five of which are included on this remastered edition. (The others have been released on other labels; see discography inside gatefold.) No track titles appeared on the original Saturn LP verso, but the three works issued were later identified as 'World's Approaching,' the LP title track, and an inversion of the title, 'Strings Strange.' A belatedly discovered tape box listed the third recording as 'Strange Strange,' a title which has been used in this edition."
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CD
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CMR 008CD
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"Fans of Sun Ra's Space Bop and genre-bending jazz were in for a shock with Strange Strings. Even in the eclectic and sometimes baffling Sun Ra catalog, Strange Strings is an outlier. It's primitive, it's sophisticated, but it's not a gradient of either. It's brutal, yet highly sensitive. Is it music, or just noise? Or noise as music? John Cage could not be reached for comment. For this album, Sun Ra collected an arsenal of exotic string instruments and handed them out to his Arkestra on the precept that 'strings could touch people in a special way.' That the Arkestrans didn't know how to play or tune these instruments was not beside the point -- it was the point. Ra framed it 'a study in ignorance.' The result was primitive, yet sophisticated; brutal, yet highly sensitive. In his essay for this expanded edition of the 1967 Saturn LP, musician-curator David Toop calls Strange Strings 'saturated in mystery.' The original 1967 Saturn LP version of Strange Strings was monophonic, contained three tracks, and suffered distortion in the mastering (perhaps due to the high-decibel studio performance and excessive reverb). Yet some sessions were captured in stereo. A dozen strange-string works have been located, five of which are included on this remastered edition. (The others have been released on other labels; see discography inside gatefold.) No track titles appeared on the original Saturn LP verso, but the three works issued were later identified as 'World's Approaching,' the LP title track, and an inversion of the title, 'Strings Strange.' A belatedly discovered tape box listed the third recording as 'Strange Strange,' a title which has been used in this edition."
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LP
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ROAR 045LP
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2022 restock. Roaratorio's survey of the unheard Sun Ra continues with Sun Embassy. Consisting of recordings from Sun Studios (aka Ra's house in Philadelphia) from 1968-1969, the album features nine tracks: six compositions which have never been heard before in any form, plus fresh coats of paint on such 1950s classics as "Sunology" and "Ancient Aiethiopia", and an early rendition of "Why Go To The Moon". Essential listening for Sun Ra devotees. Includes download coupon.
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2LP
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ROAR 040LP
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2022 restock. One might think, with a discography as extensive as the one that Sun Ra boasts, that the scope of his work has been fully apprehended by this point, but The Intergalactic Thing demonstrates its seemingly bottomless depths. This is not a complete surprise; anyone who saw Ra and the Arkestra perform will remember the sight of the band quickly shuffling through an imposingly thick stack of sheet music, when Sunny would call the next tune on the program with an encrypted hint on his keyboard. Band members tell stories of spending long hours practicing a newly-written composition, only to never play it again. Here, we have a taste of what's been hidden: drawn from rehearsals at the Sun Ra house in Philadelphia from 1969, The Intergalactic Thing introduces a dozen never-before-heard pieces from Ra's songbook. These are tunes that may have never even made it to the bandstand, let alone the recording studio, along with a handful of reworkings of such Ra classics as "Spontaneous Simplicity" and "The Exotic Forest." Without a doubt, this is one of the most important augmentations to the Sun Ra catalog in many a moon. This double LP set comes in a beautiful gatefold jacket, with extensive liner notes by Ra discographer Robert L. Campbell.
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CD
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ECD 22218
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"This package combines two LPs on one CD. Pathways was originally released on vinyl in the mid-70s at the very end of Sun Ra's relationship with Impulse and remained in print for less than one year. Evidence has remixed the original four track tapes and has added a track that was intended for the original album but omitted for technical reasons that have now been corrected. Like Cymbals and Crystal Spears, Friendly Love is an early 70s album that is being released for the first time. Sun Ra biographer John Szwed wrote the liner notes, and provides an in-depth glimpse into Sun Ra's recording and Evidence's mastering techniques."
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