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Following 2014’s landmark compilation presented by Marshall Allen, ’In the Orbit Of Ra’, Strut and Art Yard join forces once more for the first release anywhere of ’Planets Of Life Or Death’. Recorded direct from the sound board and mastered from first generation reel to reel, now available on LP.
Enlightenment is.... our tomorrow... It has no plane.... of sorrow
Hereby, our invitation… We do invite you.... Be of our Space World
Sun Ra And His Intergalactic Research Arkestra ’Enlightenment’
Within their 1973 European tour, Sun Ra and his Arkestra had just completed
a residency at the legendary Gibus in Paris in October before travelling to
Amiens for a Sunday afternoon concert. Those filing into the city’s Maison de
la Culture that day would have little idea of the intense, visceral experience
that awaited them. “Sun Ra’s use of the Arkestra as his instrument in an
onslaught of sound, colour and movement stimulated and even shocked the
senses and the shakras of audience participants onto a higher plane of spirit
consciousness,“ explains the Arkestra’s Knoel Scott.
On Side 1, the session kicks off with the theatrical overture, ’Enlightenment’ as
Sun Ra and vocalist June Tyson invite the audience to “be of our space world“.
Ra then moves into a rare instrumental version of ’Love In Outer Space’,
transforming the perennial Arkestra classic into a raw, ritualistic experience:
“this was a vehicle for the Arkestra’s space dancers. Close your eyes and
imagine them writhing across the stage in celestial homage,“ explains Scott.
Side 2 of the album opens with the glistening ’Lights On A Satellite’, a feature
for the spiritual tenor sax of John Gilmore, playing in unison with trumpeter
Kwame Hadi. Closing track, the epic, chaotic, anxious ’Discipline 27-II / What
Planet Is This’ moves from abstract, freeform keyboard work from Sun Ra to
a walking groove as Sun Ra and June Tyson take a thinly veiled psychedelic
swipe at life on earth: “If this is a planet of life, why do people die here? “
Following 2014’s landmark compilation presented by Marshall Allen, ’In the
Orbit Of Ra’, Strut and Art Yard join forces once more for the first release
anywhere of ’Planets Of Life Or Death’. Recorded direct from the sound
board and mastered from first generation reel to reel, the title is exclusively
available for Record Store Day 2015. The release features rare photos from
Sun Ra’s 1973 European tour by photographer Jan Persson with sleeve notes by
Knoel Scott. |
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