Sun Ra - Media Dream (1978)

Media Dream is a live recording of the Sun Ra Quartet, from January of 1978 in Italy (all the quartet recordings were done that month). It's a mostly free date, with "Constellation" and "Media Dreams" being the only tunes that seem to have been pre-composed (they are also the longest tracks on the album). The album starts with a keyboard showcase, with Ra supplying some super low tones along with some very queasy sounding organ. Then it's on to "Constellation" which has a great, really cheesy rhythm, courtesy of the Crumar Synthesizer/rhythm box, and excellent soloing from everyone, especially Gilmore. "Media Dreams" starts out really pretty, then gets progressively freakier. The rest of the tracks are basically soloing showcases for all the players.
AMG review by Sean Westergaard

 What is most notable about these live quartet recordings is how they transferred the Horo studio experiments to the stage. While he has been provided with decent pianos at these gigs, Sonny spends the bulk of his time with a variety of electronic keyboards, including a Moog synthesizer and a Crumar Mainmain organ. Media Dream opens up with “Saturn Research,” a three-minute blast of ominous, dissonant organ and synth, accompanied by dramatic drums and percussion—and Sonny is only just getting started. On “Constellation” (confusingly not the same composition found on Other Voices, Other Blues), Ra switches on the Mainman’s crude rhythm box, which plays a slowed-down cha-cha beat supplemented with a simple, synthesized bass line. Now, in anyone else’s hands, this would be unforgivably cheesy—yet Sonny somehow makes it work and the primitive Mainman organ gives these recordings a uniquely retro-futuristic feel. After a scribbly “Yera of the Sun” (whose Morse Code rhythms vaguely recall “Quest”), the Mainman gets another workout on “Media Dreams,” a thirteen minute tour de force. Starting out as a weirdly beautiful ballad form, with twittering organ, legato synth chords and all sorts of electronica effects, Michael Ray takes a long, warm-toned solo on trumpet, ably following Ra’s harmonic twists and turns. Then it devolves into Ra's wild, mad scientist display. At the ten-minute mark, John Gilmore comes in with a folk-like melody on tenor saxophone but just as Ra starts to heat things up again, the track quickly fades out. It sounds to me like this could have gone on forever.

Only the last two tracks on Media Dream... both feature Ra on acoustic piano. The curiously (mis)titled “Twigs at Twilight” is actually “Images,” but brutally edited, picking up about half-way through and beginning with Gilmore’s tenor solo. Although Gilmore takes many liberties with the tune, in retrospect, it is immediately recognizable as “Images.” Anyway, this is definitely another one of the all-time great Gilmore solos, not overly extended but still sublime. After a brief piano excursion and drum break, the track fades out before the return of the head, further obscuring its origins. Finally, “An Unbeknowneth Love” begins with rhapsodic piano and boom-chick trap-drumming from Luqman Ali – but someone (Gilmore?) is playing tympani, adding slippery and dramatic percussion effects: BOING! BOING! Ra gets into an aggressively dissonant, avant-garde mode before the drum solo, which fades out to end the album. Very interesting.

from NuVoid's Sun Ra Sunday review of Art Yard's 2-CD set Media Dreams

Twigs at Twilight

262. [215] Media Dream

Sun Ra (Crumar Mainman, keyb, org, p, voc); Michael Ray (tp, voc), John Gilmore (ts, timb, voc); Luqman Ali (d, voc).

Live in Italy, January 1978

The exact locations of the concerts are not known. 
Saturn LP 1978, Media Dream, was released in 1978.  It also has borne the title Saturn Research and the serial number 19783.  The matrix numbers are CMP 1978 C-A and CMP 1978 D-B.

The piece called "Constellation" here is completely different from the "Constellation" that was included in the previous entry (Other Voices, Other Blues).

from Campbell / Trent  The Earthly Recordings 2nd ed.

Sun Ra and his Arkestra
Media Dream (1978)
Recommended Records

1. Saturn Research   3:07
2. Constellation   13:33
3. Yera of the Sun   4:33
4. Media Dreams   13:36
5. Twigs at Twilight   7:20
6. An Unbeknowneth Love   4:37