Sun Ra: Strange Worlds (2005)

Strange Worlds includes all of the music originally recorded between 1967-1970 as released on two separate albums: The Solar Myth Approach, Vol. 1 and The Solar Myth Approach, Vol. 2.

The music presented here is fascinating and often intense.  Check out the excellent Sun Ra Sunday article for a synopsis of both volumes.  Strange Worlds offers a unique track arrangement, successfully blending the two releases into a single album.

One of Sun Ra's more experimental sets (and that's saying something), 1970's The Solar Myth Approach, Vol. 1 is an eclectic set of tapes from sessions that date back to 1967 and include some of Sun Ra's earliest experiments with Moog synthesizers (the clatteringly primitive solo "Scene III, Took 4" sounds like it could have come from the very first time he experimented with the machine) and evidence of his increasing interest in dissonance and repetition. For example, the opening "Spectrum" sets various horn and reed players against each other in such a fashion that they sound woozily out of tune, even though they're playing in the same key; like most of the rest of the album, this piece is built on the most minimal compositional skeleton, with little in the way of melodic development or counterpoint. The pieces are also recorded with typically eccentric instrument groupings; most of the ten-minute "Legend" is an extended duet for trombones, and only the rollicking "They'll Come Back" has a typical small-combo lineup. Those who are into Sun Ra's most non-traditional musical ideas should look no further.

AMG Review by Stewart Mason

Recorded between 1970-1971, The Solar Myth Approach, Vol. 2 is comprised of solo keyboard explorations by Sun Ra, couched in between two free-form workouts by his whole Arkestra. Kicking off the set is the first band workout "The Utter Nots," which, amidst a relentless Afro-percussion backdrop, features a loose mix of fiery and mild statements by most of Ra's main soloists (alto saxophonist Marshall Allan, oboe player James Jackson, tenor saxophonist John Gilmore, et al.). The more frenetic of the two Arkestra features, "Strange Worlds," alternates between full band outbursts and cryptic keyboard and vocal interludes. The high points of the album, though, are Ra's wonderfully strange excursions at the keys. Evoking a child's outer-space play land, Ra produces a dizzying whirl of celestial noises on the Moog synthesizer for "Scene 1, Take 1" while switching the keyboard to harpsichord mode for a hauntingly beautiful meditation of baroque proportions on "Pyramids." The final solo finds Ra running amok over both the piano keyboard and the strings inside, producing a ghostly haze of sound. Balancing out the momentous proceedings are two brief and whimsical numbers, "Ancient Ethiopia" and "Outer Spaceways, Inc.," the last of which includes a pleasant vocal request to join Sun Ra and the Arkestra on a journey to world beyond, an invitation implied throughout the disc.

AMG Review by Steven Cook

Sun Ra and his Solar Myth-Arkestra
Strange Worlds
Atom 2036 (2005) (CDx2)

Disc 1
1.  Ancient Ethiopia   2:49
2.  Pyramids   2:29
3.  Scene 1, Take 1   8:20
4.  Outer Spaceways Incorporated   1:21
5.  Interpretation   7:42
6.  Strange Worlds   8:32
7.  The Utter Nots   11:20

Disc 2
8.  Legend   9:55
9.  Seen 3, Took 4   3:28
10. The Satellites Are Spinning   3:32
11. Realm of Lightening   12:24
12. They'll Come Back   3:50
13. Adventures Of Bugs Hunter   6:38
14. Spectrum   4:59

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