Browse by Artist: SUN RA & HIS INTERGALACTIC MYTH SCIENCE SOLAR ARKESTRA

Artist:	SUN RA & HIS INTERGALACTIC MYTH SCIENCE SOLAR ARKESTRA
Title:	Sleeping Beauty
Label:	ART YARD (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	ARTYARD 003CD

"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."

Artist:	SUN RA & HIS INTERGALACTIC MYTH SCIENCE SOLAR ARKESTRA
Title:	On Jupiter
Label:	ART YARD (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	ARTYARD 004CD

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."

Artist:	SUN RA & HIS INTERGALACTIC MYTH SCIENCE SOLAR ARKESTRA
Title:	Horizon
Label:	ART YARD (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$19.00
Catalog #:	ARTYARD 008CD

"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."

Artist:	SUN RA & HIS INTERGALACTIC MYTH SCIENCE SOLAR ARKESTRA
Title:	Nidhamu + Dark Myth Equation Visitation
Label:	ART YARD (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	ARTYARD 009CD

"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?'"

Artist:	SUN RA & HIS INTERGALACTIC MYTH SCIENCE SOLAR ARKESTRA
Title:	Sleeping Beauty (Deluxe Edition)
Label:	KS ART YARD SERIES (NETHERLANDS)
Format:	LP
Price:	$23.50
Catalog #:	KSAY 003LP

This LP of Sun Ra's from 1979 marks a pinnacle in one of the Arkestra's most‐loved phases, as they embraced a funky, laid‐back groove and shuffled through three tracks of upfront bass, electric guitar, spacey Fender Rhodes, and Luqman Ali's signature late snares. With this rhythmic core, the rest of the Arkestra step up with solos, slightly out-of-tune harmonies, and vocal chants. "Door Of The Cosmos" kicks the record off at a mid‐tempo pace with handclaps, vibraphones, a killer trumpet solo from Michael Ray, and a poetic chorus from June Tyson. But it's "Springtime Again" and the title track "Sleeping Beauty" that really steal the show, so loose that they threaten to fall apart, yet somehow the music holds together as the group rock back and forth like a hammock. It's testament to Sun Ra as a band leader that he could get such restrained yet emotional performances from the Arkestra, floating in and out of time and tune, on the edge of disintegration. "Sleeping Beauty" stands out in Ra's massive and varied discography as a true high point, with restrained and dreamy electric piano from the man himself, and hypnotic performances from Arkestra players like John Gilmore, Marshall Allen, Francisco Mora, Danny Thompson, James Jacson, and the Disco Kid on guitar. This is the album '70s-era Miles Davis and Joe Zawinul wished they could have made together, but it couldn't have come from anyone, or anywhere, else. A favorite of producers and music lovers like Madlib, Yo La Tengo, Carlos Nino, Jimi Tenor, Tortoise, 4Hero, Kirk Degiorgio, Carl Craig, and Theo Parrish, this LP is quite simply a masterpiece, and anyone with even the slightest interest in Sun Ra and jazz should check it out. Inspired space‐age lullaby music of the highest order. This essential Sun Ra deluxe edition is housed in a heavy, rigid cardboard outer sleeve and pressed on 180 gram vinyl. Includes printed inner sleeve with pictures. Limited edition of 500 copies.

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