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7"
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ARTYARD 45003EP
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Side B: Sun Ra Quartet featuring John Gilmore's "The Sky Is A Sea Of Darkness When There Is No Sun To Light The Way" is cut at 45rpm (recorded in 1978). The Other Side B: "Somewhere In Space" is cut at 33rpm, alien vocal version (recorded in 1957). Pressed as a heavy weight single 70gram with a picture sleeve.
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LP
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ARTYARD CIA100
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2021 repress available in September. Art Yard present a reissue of Sun Ra's The Antique Blacks, originally released in 1974. The vitality you hear on The Antique Blacks is a testament to the unique energy of the community around The Foxhole Cafe in Philadelphia, as Ra honed his unique brand of Afro-futurism through the late '60s and '70s. Cosmic theater, spiritual chants, and experimental electronics make this record an essential document that was ahead of its time. Recorded as a radio broadcast in Philadelphia, according to Dale Williams, The Antique Blacks has a well-defined but oddball structure. Sun Ra was a master architect, very concerned to use the unfolding of an album, a broadcast, or a live performance to create a satisfying structure. "Song No. 1" is a lively, tonal introduction, featuring John Gilmore on tenor saxophone, Sun Ra on roksichord, Dale Williams, then aged 15, on guitar, and Akh Tal Ebah on trumpet. Sun Ra's poetry is featured on "There Is Change In The Air", a track which has on occasion been used for the album title: in its original incarnation as a Saturn LP, there was no dedicated sleeve artwork, and this record appeared under many names. Ra's poetry is allusive, elusive, and paradoxical, and this was its first major appearance on a record. During instrumental passages, Williams's guitar is heard, along with the saxophones of Marshall Allen and Danny Davis. The Antique Blacks is a similar setting for a Sun Ra poem, which encompasses "spiritual men", and Lucifer as a dark angel. The Arkestra is heard in conducted improvisational ensembles, in between the sections of the poem. "This Song Is Dedicated To Nature's God" has Arkestral vocals, with John Gilmore's voice in the foreground. Sun Ra's poetic declamations provide the structure for "The Ridiculous I" and "The Cosmos Me", which also has a fine unaccompanied tenor solo by John Gilmore, keyboard improvisations by Sun Ra, and closes with bass clarinet from Eloe Omoe. Sun Ra's keyboards are heard with minimal Arkestra support on "Would I For All That Were" -- a fine synthesizer improvisation, with electric piano left hand accompaniment. Tension is resolved by "Space Is The Place", which rounds the album out in an upbeat mood, with Akh Tal Ebah, James Jackson, and Sun Ra prominent among the vocalists. The closing section includes the chant Sun Ra And His Band From Outer Space, often used at the close of live performances.
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AYOOT 002LP
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All the material on Media Dreams comes from live performances from January 1978, when Sun Ra was in Italy with a quartet -- Michael Ray, John Gilmore, and Luqman Ali -- making recordings for Aldo Sinesio and the Horo label. The trip also included concerts in Rome, Milan and elsewhere; these produced enough recorded material for several Saturn albums, including Media Dream. The exact dates are uncertain; all the musicians were present in Rome as early as January 2nd, when they recorded New Steps (1978) for Horo; they were still in Italy on January 23rd, when a concert in Milan resulted in the Saturn LP Disco 3000 (1978) (COSMO 111LP). These recordings, of which Media Dream is a great example, feature an instrument newly added to Sun Ra's arsenal: the Crumar Mainman. It's a rare keyboard, probably made in small numbers by Crumar, which manufactured synths from the late 1960s until 1984. Martin O'Cuthbert also played the Mainman -- he uses it on several recordings from 1979 and 1980: it's described in that context as a "string synthesizer." After that, it seems to disappear from view. It was reportedly the first keyboard to provide preprogrammed beats -- Sun Ra certainly uses that feature on Media Dream. The album opens with Sun Ra building dark organ tonalities at the start of "Saturn Research," creating an ominous barrage in the lower register, while Ali contributes a subdued accompaniment. Ra's is an orchestral concept here, a depiction of an ominous, portentous scene. Unlike some of his other explorations in this musical territory the piece is not developed here into a large-scale structure, but presented as a short sketch, satisfying and complete in itself. Applause separates it from the next track on the album: these are two pieces were clearly played one after the other in concert. As "Constellation" gets under way after the applause, Sun Ra lightens the mood, laying down rhythmic patterns with the Mainman, Ray's is the first musical statement over the top of these. Ra adds other keyboard layers above the rhythm to take the music in a different direction. There's almost a hint of minimalism as performed by others here, but the way Sun Ra bends and deconstructs the mechanical patterns are all his own. In their original context, these Italian concert recordings served to document Sun Ra's musical activity; his music was a cosmic newspaper, he once said.
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LP
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COSMO 111LP
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2021 repress available in September. Originally released in 1978 on El Saturn Records. Disco 3000 is one of Sun Ra's greatest from the '70s. Recorded in Italy in 1978, it features some incredibly otherworldly keyboards that are some of his most enigmatic on record. Original tracks from the album include "Disco 3000", an incredible workout on synthesizer, with a tiny bit of drum machine, a little "Space Is The Place" breakdown, and all of the wild sound you'd expect from a Sun Ra album -- plus more long tracks -- the sweetly soulful "Friendly Galaxy", a great soul jazz number, and "Dance Of The Cosmo Aliens", which has spooky organ, frenetic bass, and somber percussion.
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ARTYARD 444LP
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2021 repress available in September. Originally released in 1979. A mixture of live recording and studio post-production, On Jupiter sounds unique to any other album Sun Ra made. The Arkestra reflects a disco pulse right back on itself and delivers one of the most cohesive albums of their career. The title track is a masterpiece of gentle atonal harmony, while "UFO" pushes along at a cracking disco-like pace with fierce brass and spacey dub effects. This is a timeless Ra classic.
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LP
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ARTYARD 333LP
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2021 repress available in September. Originally released in 1979; 2017 remastered repress of Art Yard's 2005 reissue. One of the more delicate recordings of Sun Ra's 28-strong Arkestra, Sleeping Beauty drifts in on a cloud of cosmic dust, sounding unlike anything before or after. With drummer Luqman Ali keeping the narcotic funk, but with dreamy solos from other key Arkestra players like John Gilmore, Michael Ray, and Marshall Allen, no Sun Ra collection is complete without this LP. Inspired space-age lullaby music.
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LP
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ARTYARD 666LP
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2017 repress - remastered; Originally released in 2006. Egyptian Jazz represents The Cairo Jazz Band responding to the American jazz scene of the '60s and '70s with influences from Mongo Santamaria to Randy Weston and Sun Ra. These tracks were first presented by The Ministry Of Culture in Cairo as a Prism Music Production and released with an additional disc by the composer Soliman Gamil. This release marks the first time Salah Ragab and The Cairo Jazz Band's definitive works are presented to the west.
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LP
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ARTYARD 014B-LP
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2017 repress of Art Yard's 2015 reissue. Originally released in 1977 by Sun Ra's El Saturn label. Includes printed inner sleeve. As composer, bandleader, and full-time member of the Sun Ra Arkestra, Pat Patrick was a visionary musician whose singular contribution to the jazz tradition has not yet been fully recognized. As well as holding down the baritone spot in the Arkestra for 35 years, Patrick played flute and alto, composed in both jazz and popular idioms, and was a widely respected musician, playing with Duke Ellington, Eric Dolphy, Thelonious Monk, and John Coltrane, with whom he appeared on Africa/Brass (1961). But he is best known for his crucial contributions to key Sun Ra recordings including Angels and Demons at Play (1967), Jazz in Silhouette (1959), and The Nubians of Plutonia (1967), among dozens of others. But as a bandleader, Patrick only released one LP -- the almost mythical Sound Advice, recorded with his Baritone Saxophone Retinue, a unique gathering of baritone saxophone masters including Charles Davis and René McLean. Sound Advice is a deep-hued exploration of this special instrument, a lost masterpiece of Arkestrally-minded Ellingtonia on which higher adepts of the lower cosmic tones are heard in rare conference. Unissued since original release, this unique jazz masterpiece now returns to the limelight. Released in collaboration with the Pat Patrick estate. Remastered and restored sound. Liner notes by scholar and musician Bill Banfield.
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2x10"
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ARTYARD 102EP
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Sold out, repress forthcoming.... A double 10" set featuring Sun Ra recordings. Initially released on two separate 10"s back in 2010/13. Volume 1 features "Along Came Ra", a previously unissued live track recorded in Paris in 1983. The legendary Disco 3000 concert tapes are on the flip. Volume 2 lifts three fine selections from the Sub-Underground Saturn LPs. "Love Is For Always" and the driving, roots-y "The World Of Africa" come from 1974's Temple U; while the myth-science poetics of "Space Is The Place/We Roam The Cosmos" comes from the 1975 What's New set.
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Book
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ARTYARD 001BK
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Last copies... Revised and expanded second edition of Hartmut Geerken and Chris Trent's comprehensive reference Omniverse Sun Ra, originally published in 1994. Full-color 304-page hardcover book. French fold cover with metallic silver foil blocking on cyan faimei cloth. 290mm x 245mm portrait. Omniverse Sun Ra features many previously unpublished photographs of Sun Ra and His Arkestra in New York in 1966 and Germany in 1979 by Val Wilmer, and Hartmut Geerken's previously unpublished photographs from Heliopolis in Cairo, Egypt, in 1971, in addition to an updated comprehensive pictorial and annotated discography by Chris Trent, including chronological discography and alphabetical record title, composition, personnel, and record label indexes, as well as indexes of shellac 78RPM records, 45 RPM singles, jackets, and labels. Also includes essays and photo documents by Hartmut Geerken, Chris Trent, Amiri Baraka, Robert L. Campbell, Chris Cutler, Gabi Geist, Sigrid Hauff, Karl Heinz Kessler, Robert Lax, and Salah Ragab.
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CD
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ARTYARD 014CD
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Limited 2021 restock. "Of all the saxophones, it is our opinion that the one with the most distinctive sound, warmth and range that can reach into that of other saxophones, is the baritone sax." As composer, bandleader, and full-time member of the Sun Ra Arkestra, Pat Patrick was a visionary musician whose singular contribution to the jazz tradition has not yet been fully recognized. As well as holding down the baritone spot in the Arkestra for 35 years, Patrick played flute and alto, composed in both jazz and popular idioms, and was a widely respected musician, playing with Duke Ellington, Eric Dolphy, Thelonious Monk, and John Coltrane, with whom he appeared on Africa/Brass (1961). But he is best known for his crucial contributions to key Sun Ra recordings including Angels and Demons at Play (1967), Jazz in Silhouette (1959), and The Nubians of Plutonia (1967), among dozens of others. But as a bandleader, Patrick only released one LP -- the almost-mythical Sound Advice, recorded with his Baritone Saxophone Retinue, a unique gathering of baritone saxophone masters including Charles Davis and René McLean. First issued in 1977 on Sun Ra's legendary Saturn Records imprint, Sound Advice is a deep-hued exploration of this special instrument, a lost masterpiece of Arkestrally-minded Ellingtonia on which higher adepts of the lower cosmic tones are heard in rare conference. Unissued since original release, this unique jazz masterpiece now returns to the limelight. Released in collaboration with the Pat Patrick estate. Remastered and restored sound. Liner notes by scholar and musician Bill Banfield.
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7"
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ARTYARD 45002EP
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Salah Ragab formed The Cairo Jazz Band, Egypt's first jazz big band, in 1968. Ragab had studied with Osman Kareem, with whom he formed the first jazz quintet in Cairo in 1963, and would go on to accompany Sun Ra on a European tour in 1984. On these recordings, made in Heliopolis, Egypt, between 1968 and 1973, The Cairo Jazz Band features some of the best musicians in Egypt, including Zaky Osman (trumpet), Saied Salama (tenor sax), and Alaa Mostafa (piano), along with four other saxophones, three other trumpets, four trombones, bass, drums, percussion, and various other oriental instruments.
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CD
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ARTYARD 013CD
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"A classic Saturn experimental studio/rehearsal release, starting with eight delirious minutes of kora and piano frame -- almost certainly the Strange Strings instruments, whatever they were. And then Ra's signature clavinet of the period and an unidentifiable double-reed instrument, probably played by Marshall Allen. Enter the xylophone. I sense you're getting the picture; all in all, 21 great later-1960s minutes. Followed by a lyrical standard with Ra playing acoustic piano and John Gilmore saying what has to be said: a live recording, as is the next. Congas, bongos, Ra on Rocksichord and singing in the Ra-African style. Some fine straight ahead jazz follows -- with serious electric guitar and great tenor playing. And so it goes on, winding up with full-on Space is the Place Angel rant from Ra -- not the best sound, but heartfelt. A fine, eclectic collection with enough gems."
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2CD
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ARTYARD 012CD
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Subtitled: Live At The Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival 1972-73-74. "Recorded live at the Ann Arbor Blues And Jazz Festival 1972-73-74. The classic big band with a full complement of singers, Tracks 1-10 (1972) feature the great Space is the Place Suite. After the first few minutes the sound is surprisingly good with great drums throughout; crystal clear. Presence and excitement are well captured, along with some blistering Ra electronics and the crowd cheering everyone on. A bass solo even: rare event. Tracks 11-18 (1973) roll straight on winding up with the long declamatory, dramaturgical, chant that gives this set its title and, so far as I know, appears here for the first time. Extensive notes by John Sinclair."
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CD
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ARTYARD 011CD
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"A transition classic. Recorded mostly in the early '60s with Ra, Marshall Allen, John Gilmore, James Jacson, Nimrod Hunt and Thea Barbara, Space Probe explores stripped back forms and colour combinations that are far from jazz -- or that attempt, very successfully, to take jazz into wholly new territories. Especially notable is the extraordinary Conversation Of J.P. for piano and percussion which, along with the opening track - an 18-minute Moog solo, probably recorded in 1970, just after Ra had newly acquired the instrument and was still putting it through its paces - make this an essential release in the Ra canon. As a whole, there is an impressive palette of ideas and experiments here, situating Ra at the heart of the musical revolution that was overturning orthodoxies in every field of musical endeavor at this time. The title track is notable as documenting Ra's early exploration (his first released) of the unworldly potential of a newly-acquired Mini-Moog --a prototype, in fact, given him by Robert Moog to test. Moog always claimed afterwards that he never understood exactly where some of those sounds came from -- suspecting he might have modified the instrument in some way."
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CD
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ARTYARD 005CD
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"Two related classic Saturn LP reissues on a single CD, both recorded at the Detroit Jazz Centre in 1980 and 1981 respectively. They share an excellent sound quality and great playing -- there's a classic version of 'Rocket No.9' and plenty of otherworldly Moog and electronic keyboards -- it's up there with Ra's best on record. 'Rocket' excepted, all the pieces are original to these LPs and don't appear elsewhere, though the first track of Purple Star Zone is heard again at the end, with another name (exactly as it was on the 2 LPs), so it was clearly much liked by the boss. These were 10-14 piece bands, featuring the regulars, including June Tyson, and some visiting guests. The first LP features prominent electric guitar (not identified in the personnel list on the CD, but every listing I've seen for these LPs is different; this one should be fairly accurate in general, since the promoter helped to get the CD together). A fine release, touched with greatness and with a good sound. Comes in the usual elaborate gatefold digipack, covers for which the Artyard label is justly praised."
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ARTYARD 010CD
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"Another much sought after and long unavailable title recorded in 1974 with a smallish ensemble consisting (probably) of stalwarts Marshall Allen, John Gilmore, Danny David, James Jacson, Akh Tal Ebah, Clifford Jarvis, Artakatune, and a new electric guitarist, Sly, and released on Saturn in the same year. This sounds like a studio recording and carefully thought out - most of the compositions appear only on this record (apart from versions of 'Nature's God' and 'Space Is The Place'), and include a chain of very interesting accompanied /interpolated) spoken texts: 'There is a Change in the Air,' 'The Antique Blacks,' 'The ridiculous 'I' and the Cosmos 'Me'' as well as a very long and scary coda to 'Space is the Place.' Ra plays Rocksichord and Moog throughout (solo on track 7 and at the end of track 8). Theatrical and political; a fascinating release."
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ARTYARD 101CD
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2024 restock. "Recorded at The Teatro Cilak, 1/23//1978, Milan Italy - Sun Ra: piano, organ, Moog, Crumar Mainman, vocals - John Gilmore: tenor sax, drums, vocals - Luqman Ali: drums, vocals - Michael Ray: trumpet, vocals. In the winter months of 1977-1978, philosopher, pianist and bandleader Sun Ra was in Italy. The Italian tour resulted in releases on Sun Ra's own Saturn label, all of which have long been out of print and all but impossible to find. With the re-release of Disco 3000, one of the most celebrated of these elusive Saturn gems is once more available. This release, and its companion Media Dreams, capture a side of Sun Ra's work - small ensemble, close form, original composition, rather minimal - that is otherwise under-represented. Depending heavily on Ra's electric and electronic keyboards (including the mysterious Crumar Mainman - of which even the company has no record) and, more unusually, on his intelligent use of sequencers and rhythm machines, this is an important window on the evolution of Ra's musical thinking, rendered even more transparent by the economy of its means; a quartet comprising only saxophonist John Gilmore, trumpeter Michael Ray and drummer Luqman Ali." 24 bit (mastered from the original tapes). 6 panel digipack features biographical notes by Michael Ray.
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CD
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ARTYARD 701CD
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"What the London orbital is to the English capital, the Berliner ring is to Berlin: a circular highway that surrounds the city. The first contemporary release from Art Yard amalgamates disparate elements: electro mechanical devices, invented instruments, modified keyboards, delays, customised rhythm and string machines: a half man, half machine driven trip into the Electro-Mechanical sub-underground, built around a combination of moods and themes drawn from the Berlin landscape. Berliner Ring work toward a brew of forms and techniques, creating geographical references and representations, 'tonal landscapes,' an unfolding of ambient instrumental stereologues. Berliner Ring is: Moritz Wolpert:: percussion, tympani, painting, inventor of the Heckeshorn -a hybrid slide guitar, triggered polychord and rhythm machine. Christian Günther: builder and designer of analogue synthesizers, rhythm boxes, theremins and painting machines. Alexander Christou: samples, electronic grooves, songs, traditional and outside music styles, 12 string guitar. Thomas Stern: bass, osmotic dubbler, doctorate in distillery, orbiting Berliner Ring and great remixer."
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ARTYARD 009CD
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"In 1971, in Denmark, at the end of a tour, Sun Ra suddenly decided to take his whole band to Egypt. They had no concerts and no contacts there but Ra sold some recording rights to Black Lion to pay for the tickets and they flew out. They were stopped at customs and their instruments were temporarily impounded but they were let through as tourists. Then they booked into a hotel facing the pyramid at Giza. Word got to Hartmut Geerken, then working at the Goethe institute, and he quickly threw a concert together at his house in Heliopolis, for which Brigadier Salah Ragab borrowed army instruments for the Arkestra to play (he was later disciplined for it). Ra's Moog had made it through customs and a Tiger Organ was hired. One of the audience (of 25) booked the band in for a Cairo TV session the following day. Then Ragab persuaded the Ministry of Culture to book a concert at the Balloon Theatre (for another tiny audience: only the first 4 rows were occupied). Two more concerts followed -- at the American University (for the cab fare) and the Versailles Club. They stayed for more than a fortnight, making a film while they were there and finally, by band-members selling various personal items, raised the money to fly home. This release contains all the released material from that visit (3 LPs) as well as unreleased material from these same sessions. Nidhamu & Dark Myth Equation Visitation complete the Egypt trilogy. Most remarkable is Nidhamu (the second release of the series, half recorded at the Balloon Theatre, the other half at Hartmut Geerken's house in Heliopolis) -- a remarkable document: austere and very out there. Electric keyboards and an eerie 'Discipline No.11' set the scene, and after some solo Moog there's a spooky miniature 'Discipline No.15' introducing another long Moog and keyboards solo: 35 pretty abstract minutes that just slip by. Dark Myth Equation Visitation follows (this was the first LP release, and has also been known as Sun Ra in Egypt Vol. 1 and Nature's God). The first tracks are from the Cairo TV broadcast and the whole collection features more familiar groove-based pieces characteristic of the period, interspersed with Moog and electric keyboard solos. June Tyson reappears for 'To Nature's God' and the highly eccentric 'Why Go To The Moon?'"
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ARTYARD 008CD
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"In 1971, in Denmark, at the end of a tour, Sun Ra suddenly decided to take his whole band to Egypt. They had no concerts and no contacts there, but Ra sold some recording rights to Black Lion to pay for the tickets and they flew out. They were stopped at customs and their instruments were temporarily impounded, but they were let through as tourists. Then they booked into a hotel facing the pyramid at Giza. Word got to Hartmut Geerken, then working at the Goethe institute, and he quickly threw a concert together at his house in Heliopolis, for which Brigadier Salah Ragab borrowed army instruments for the Arkestra to play (he was later disciplined for it). Ra's Moog had made it through customs and a Tiger Organ was hired. One of the audience (of 25) booked the band in for a Cairo TV session the following day. Then Ragab persuaded the Ministry of Culture to book a concert at the Balloon Theatre (for another tiny audience: only the first 4 rows were occupied). Two more concerts followed -- at the American University (for the cab fare) and the Versailles Club. They stayed for more than a fortnight, making a film while they were there and finally, by band-members selling various personal items, raised the money to fly home. Horizon (also known as Starwatchers and Sun Ra in Egypt Vol. 2) contains a big chunk of the now legendary Balloon Theatre concert (it burned down soon after their visit, as did the hotel in which the Arkestra stayed while they were in Cairo). The Balloon extract is an uncut block (tracks 1- 4 on the CD) and features a lot of Sun Ra's all-hell-let-loose Moog soloing, as well as a great version of 'Discipline #2.' The rest of Horizon is from the Heliopolis concert, kicking off with an instrumental version of 'Enlightenment' and 'Love In Outer Space,' (neither are on the original LP) segueing slowly into 'Space Is The Place' -- followed by drum orchestra, more Ra soloing on Moog, Tiger Organ and detuned piano (bloops, hoovering, whistles, Concords taking off) leading to a first lurching, then wild, 'Discipline #8.' Two bonus tracks, for the first time restored from the original concert, follow: 'We'll Wait For You' (with June Tyson) and 'The Satellites Are Spinning' -- which ends in full-on percussion. A classic recording of a classic band in great form."
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ARTYARD 004CD
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Originally issued as El Saturn 101679, recorded on 10/16/79, never reissued before in any form (before Artyard's prior LP edition in 2005). "On Jupiter uses more than the usual amount of post recording processing and mixing, nudging up to the jazz-rock/disco music of its time, but not getting too close. These are still eccentric, expanded, lurching musical beasts. And it's nice to hear the oboe and bassoon -- so often lost on the live concert mixes -- so prominent here. The playing is great, as ever. This release along with Sleeping Beauty are two of the more accessible Ra releases and mark a rare experiment in quasi popularity by the band. They are both also, at present, collectors' items."
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ARTYARD 003CD
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"Originally released on Saturn Records in 1979, both Sleeping Beauty and On Jupiter are studio recordings by the large Ra ensemble (including electric guitar and electric bass) and, for the most part, feature the first recordings of the titles included on them (though most were played live a few months earlier). These two releases belong together, since they were recorded and released in close proximity and are both long, groove-based, pieces that range from proto-disco to relaxed groove-driven pieces in which electric piano, guitar and bass function as a ground on which a parade of events drift in and out; Sleeping Beauty is a chaotic, swirling masterpiece with lots of effects added to the instruments and an interesting mix."
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2CD
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ARTYARD 002CD
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"This is the companion to Disco 3000, made on the same classic Italian quartet tour with John Gilmore, Michael Ray (trumpet) and the minimal but perfect Luqman Ali (drums). Ra himself plays piano and electronic keyboards, including the mysterious Crumar Mainman, which Ra describes as 'like a piano, organ, clavichord, cello, violin and brass instruments' and which also, importantly, has a facility for pre-programmed bass lines and electronic percussion, which Ra uses constantly and to great effect in this small ensemble setting and seldom, if ever, elsewhere. The best of this collection (most of CD1) is luminous: very electronic, often rhythmical and melodic, always economical and making every sound count. These tracks are like no other jazz ensemble and, although recognizable as Ra -- who else could think of, and then get away with this -- unlike any other Ra ensemble, either. Ra makes the machines do amazing, visionary things while the band exercises restraint, remaining always in focus. In between, there are piano, saxophone, trumpet and drum vignettes, fresh and perfectly judged; this real was a fine band. This places the original vinyl release (and related releases, Sound Mirror and Disco 3000) back into the context of the concerts from which they were drawn. An important addition to the Sun Ra canon, since it is a rare document of an unusual Ra project that produced three classic late '70s LPs. Beautifully packaged and well annotated."
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