Interplanetary Music

An F-bomb saturated hip-hop call & response club cut...from Sun Ra?! • First ever reissues of this iconic demonic slice of Saturnian splendor, one of the most coveted releases in the Ra canon!• Features the emblematic “Nuclear War” anthem, earmarked to be played like an air raid siren when we as a society decide to pack up and call it a planet. A cut further popularized by Yo La Tengo.• Stunning new cover art blending favorite elements from the handmade original Saturn pressings.While the most...

An F-bomb saturated hip-hop call & response club cut...from Sun Ra?! • First ever reissues of this iconic demonic slice of Saturnian splendor, one of the most coveted releases in the Ra canon!• Features the emblematic “Nuclear War” anthem, earmarked to be played like an air raid siren when we as a society decide to pack up and call it a planet. A cut further popularized by Yo La Tengo.• Stunning new cover art blending favorite elements from the handmade original Saturn pressings.While the...

• AVAILABLE ON ON CD FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER! • FEATURING CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE QUEEN OF AFROFUTURISM, JUNE TYSON! • INCLUDES A BONUS CUT FROM THE SAME SESSIONS, NOT AVAILABLE ON THE ORIGINAL ALBUM! True studio albums of Ra with the Arkestra are rare on this planet or beyond. This studio saucer is an interplanetary interpreter, here to convert even the faintest of heart to the sounds of Sun Ra. Recorded with Arkestra veterans at the same NY studio that hosted countless Sun Ra sessions since...

• AVAILABLE ON LP FOR THE FIRST TIME IN OVER 30 YEARS! • FEATURING CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE QUEEN OF AFROFUTURISM, JUNE TYSON! • INCLUDES A BONUS CUT FROM THE SAME SESSIONS, NOT AVAILABLE ON THE ORIGINAL LP! True studio albums of Ra with the Arkestra are rare on this planet or beyond. This studio saucer is an interplanetary interpreter, here to convert even the faintest of heart to the sounds of Sun Ra. Recorded with Arkestra veterans at the same NY studio that hosted countless Sun Ra sessions...

SOLAR GUIDED IMPROVISATIONS OF UNBRIDLED CACOPHONY! Recorded in ’73 and rejected by tin-eared major label execs in ’75, Crystal Spears (or “Crystal Clear” as it appears on the tape box) subsumes a cathartic brawl between Minimoog and Yamaha combo organ, with percussionists providing tonal textures, and plaintive oboe colliding with roaring electronic keyboards over waves of rollicking marimba, devilishly chattering below the fray. Crystal Spears is Ra’s once lost aural cinematheque! Crystal...

SOLAR GUIDED IMPROVISATIONS OF UNBRIDLED CACOPHONY! Recorded in ’73 and rejected by tin-eared major label execs in ’75, Crystal Spears (or “Crystal Clear” as it appears on the tape box) subsumes a cathartic brawl between Minimoog and Yamaha combo organ, with percussionists providing tonal textures, and plaintive oboe colliding with roaring electronic keyboards over waves of rollicking marimba, devilishly chattering below the fray. Crystal Spears is Ra’s once lost aural cinematheque! ...

AVANT JAZZ FROM MARSHALL ALLEN, FRED FRITH, TERRY RILEY & SCHOOLKIDS! The Oakland Elementary School Arkestra presents the odyssey of 4th, 5th & 6th grade students from novice musicians into an avant garde ensemble. An ensemble that engenders an array of sonic textures which never remain static or stagnant, but flow in a way that it's always surprising, often startling and astonishing. These schoolkids have traveled the spaceways of Modernism, Minimalism, Impressionism, Exotica, film...

AVANT JAZZ FROM MARSHALL ALLEN, FRED FRITH, TERRY RILEY & SCHOOLKIDS! The Oakland Elementary School Arkestra presents the odyssey of 4th, 5th & 6th grade students from novice musicians into an avant garde ensemble. An ensemble that engenders an array of sonic textures which never remain static or stagnant, but flow in a way that it's always surprising, often startling and astonishing. These schoolkids have traveled the spaceways of Modernism, Minimalism, Impressionism, Exotica, film...

Cymbals has finally landed… and brought a 2nd saucer with it! Originally recorded for the Impulse! jazz label in ’73, Cymbals is paired with a 2nd disc of unheard material from the same sessions. Hear Ra’s Baroque soundscapes, electrolytic clusters and dithering Moogs catalyze images of monoliths, space stations, computers malfunctioning and galaxies imploding on two compact saucers, with liner notes by known Ra-fficianado Brother Cleve! Making its debut here, the 2nd disc is culled from a...

Cymbals has finally landed… and brought a 2nd saucer with it! Originally recorded for the Impulse! jazz label in ’73, Cymbals makes its first legitimate release on vinyl, paired with a second LP of unheard material from the same sessions. Hear Ra’s Baroque soundscapes, electrolytic clusters and dithering Moogs catalyze images of monoliths, space stations, computers malfunctioning and galaxies imploding on pristine red and green vinyl with liner notes by known Ra-fficianado Brother Cleve!...

Astro-Black mythology, astro-timeless immortality! Astro Black has long been known as a cornerstone of the Ra catalog. It is well recorded, features a superb Arkestral lineup, and successfully combines several of the styles in which Sun Ra orbited, from Saturnic jazz to astro-funk. And now it’s in the earthly bins on CD for the first time, with new cover art, and liner notes by Robert Campbell (author of The Earthly Recordings of Sun Ra)! Although Astro Black was obviously professionally...

Astro-Black mythology, astro-timeless immortality! • A RA CORNERSTONE, CUT BY KEVIN GRAY & PRESSED AT THIRD MAN PRESSING!• NOW ON ASTRO BLACK VINYL!• PACKAGED WITH NEW COVER ART, WITH AN EYE CATCHING OBI STRIP Astro Black has long been known as a cornerstone of the Ra catalog. It is well recorded, features a superb Arkestral lineup, and successfully combines several of the styles in which Sun Ra orbited, from Saturnic jazz to astro-funk. Pressed on astro black vinyl at Third Man Pressing and...

"Plutonian Nights," the opening jam from the 1959 Afrofuturist classic album Nubians of Plutonia, is Sun Ra's quintessential, astro-majestic party joint. Among the top grooves in his immense catalog, Ra reveals his love for R&B is inseparable from his embrace of Jazz. (He once told bassist Richard Evans, "We don't play Jazz, we play Dazz.") Pat Patrick's bari sax morphs into a Fender bass, while the swinging flow of John Gilmore & Co. gives new meaning to the notion of 'Blowing' (Out From...

Shining sounds from the dawn of the Sun Ra Arkestra. "El is A Sound of Joy" was recorded in 1956 and appeared the following year on the very first Saturn LP, Super-Sonic Jazz. Incredible is the fact that saxophonist Charles Davis, here providing the soulful baritone anchor line (counterpoint to Ra's formidable left hand), remains in the front-line of today's Sun Ra Arkestra directed by Marshall Allen. Shuffle swing breakdown jets leisurely, casually, masterfully, painting lush, post-modern...

STELLAR GOOD VIBRATIONS FROM THE INVENTOR OF THE ELECTRO-THEREMIN! Light years ahead of its time, the eerie sound, colorful orchestral blending, and haunting melodies of Music For Heavenly Bodies has become a crate digging classic. America's fascination with space and its mysteries was at a peak during the 1950s, and this astral awareness got the attention of professional musician, Paul Tanner. Tanner, a trombonist, got his start in the original Glenn Miller Orchestra. The theremin first...

STELLAR GOOD VIBRATIONS FROM THE INVENTOR OF THE ELECTRO-THEREMIN! Light years ahead of its time, the eerie sound, colorful orchestral blending, and haunting melodies of Music For Heavenly Bodies has become a crate digging classic. America's fascination with space and its mysteries was at a peak during the 1950s, and this astral awareness got the attention of professional musician, Paul Tanner. Tanner, a trombonist, got his start in the original Glenn Miller Orchestra. The theremin first...

Swirling guitars and proto-ambient electronica sounds from many light years away! The Astro-Sound of Magnificence, from Beyond the Year 2000...a unique capsule of a funky, psychedelic rhythm section jamming, with snarling, stabbing and swooshing cranked-up-to-infinity electric guitar voyages piloted by Wrecking Crew veteran Jerry Cole, polished and primed for takeoff with a string section playing eerie, beckoning melodies in unison. These are the sounds of epiphanies concerning the future,...

A time capsule of atomic-age country, radioactive rockabilly, and other-worldly melodies! Sheldon Allman (the singing voice of Mr. Ed!) brings you this long-out-of-print bunker full of plutonium-charged songs about space and destruction. Featuring “Crawl Out Through The Fallout” as heard in the award winning video game Fallout 4! Modern Harmonic proudly resurrects this wonderfully mystifying LP!  A true creative treasure, the Chicago born and Canada raised Sheldon Allman was a graduate of...

A new Sun Ra album touches ground in the earthly bins, 50 years after its creation! Sun Ra is still trying to get our attention 50 years after dispatching this transmission. Humanity?s path since then makes his message even more urgent today. Years after Herman Poole "LeSony'r Ra" Blount "left the planet" he's still trying to reach us, to wake us up and to change our destiny. Sun Ra and the Arkestra weren't a traditional studio band, and every star in the vast galaxy of their discography...

A new Sun Ra LP touches ground in the earthly bins, 50 years after its creation! Sun Ra is still trying to get our attention 50 years after dispatching this transmission. Humanity's path since then makes his message even more urgent today. Years after Herman Poole "LeSony'r Ra" Blount "left the planet" he's still trying to reach us, to wake us up and to change our destiny. Sun Ra and the Arkestra weren't a traditional studio band, and every star in the vast galaxy of their discography reflects...

Sun Ra's angular yet strident and soulful "Saturn," recorded in 1958, displays bluesy cubist bop in perfect alter-dimensional extension of Fletcher Henderson. It's also a showcase for John Gilmore's sax acrobatics and supersonic swing. Gilmore dove deep into the Ra Omniverse; "got the concept" - as Coltrane described the tenor giant - hooked by this composition, and never left. Dual baritones of Pat Patrick and Charles Davis (who continues in the front line of the living, glowing Arkestra of...

The first ever vinyl reissue of an extraordinarily-unique space-age educational LP. Includes the oft-covered "A Shooting Star Is Not A Star" and "Why Does The Sun Shine?" Featuring Leo Leonni cover art and taken from the original atomic-era 1959 master tapes. Written by Hy Zaret and sung by Tom Glazer & Dottie Evans. Zaret (co-author of "Unchained Melody") turned his attention to educational children's music in the late 1950s, collaborating with Lou Singer on a six-album series called "Ballads...

Taxi to tomorrow with this saucer of space-age sounds! Sound, sustain, and silence unite, polyrhythmic Hammond organs and xylophones round off a cosmic eruption! Created for the 1962 World?s Fair, this album bundles beautifully textured space sounds with period-perfect narration. Take the Gayway to a surplus of recognizable moments lifted for modern-day samples! Man In Space With Sounds is a commemorative album of 12 tracks dedicated to the Seattle World?s Fair. Envisioned and conducted by...

Taxi to tomorrow with this saucer of space-age sounds! Sound, sustain, and silence unite, polyrhythmic Hammond organs and xylophones round off a cosmic eruption! Created for the 1962 World?s Fair, this album bundles beautifully textured space sounds with period-perfect narration. Take the Gayway to a surplus of recognizable moments lifted for modern-day samples! Man In Space With Sounds is a commemorative album of 12 tracks dedicated to the Seattle World?s Fair. Envisioned and conducted by...

A TRIPLE LP AND DOUBLE CD OF INTERPLANETARY PERFECTION! A stunning live Sun Ra event, recorded at the Inter-Media Arts Center in New York, April 20, 1991! Modern Harmonic proudly presents this very special Sun Ra recording, issued here for the first time ever! This concert was just two years before Ra's "earthly departure" -- and his keyboard work was amazingly strident and vibrant here. The Arkestra was in perfect form as well; this special night also showcased the Arkestra's vocal...

The first-ever collection of Arkestra vocal tracks! Over 75 minutes of vocal performances - audible perfection! Featuring album art interpreted from the work of "the father of modern space art," Chesley Bonestell, plus extensive liner notes. Across the history of jazz, there is no wilder, more future-forward composer and performer than Herman Poole Blount, aka Sun Ra. Known as much for his wild on-stage persona as his innovative compositions, Sun Ra was the avant-garde bleeding edge of the...

**PARENTAL ADVISORY -- EXPLICIT LYRICS** "Nuclear War," Sun Ra's groove-infested x-rated warning, was an early 80s underground hit when it appeared on a 12-inch (plus the Saturn album A Fireside Chat With Lucifer). Ra and crew expose the deathly horror with deadly serious call-and-response, leavened with funk and a pinch of humor for better digestion, eyes gleaming in a laid-back, lilting, cosmo-gangster-lean. "Outer Reach Intense Energy" and "Twilight" are originally unreleased works,...

"The Lady With The Golden Stockings" is a propulsive, forthright groove -- a decisive, deep-space, pre-dawn party jam, emitting golden sparks from the black hole center which begat "Africa" and "Watusa." Quantum-elasticity of temporal equations, bubbling bass, trumpet dancing on light waves, tenor sax serenade across the galaxy, signaling yonder... vessels... beings... femaliens... Pure poetry in sublime, delicate, rhythmelodic motion becomes "Spontaneous Simplicity." A centerpiece among the...

Among Sun Ra's most famous and jet-propelled anthems, "Rocket Number Nine" is heard here in one of the earliest renditions from a marathon June 1960 session, with a staggering, swaggering, hip-bop beat. Ignition. Liftoff. "Rocket Number Nine Take Off for the Planet Venus, Zoom Zoom! Up in the air! Zoom! Up!" Paired with originally unknown recordings, including the driving, bossa nova-infused "Ankhnation" from 1959 and "Project Black Mass" from 1962. More energized and driving in contrast with...

Double LP on clear vinyl!!If you were going to envision the ultimate avant-garde meeting-of-the-minds jam session, who would you pick? Even the most hopeful fan of strange and innovative music couldn't have seen this one coming: on one afternoon in 1986, at Coney Island's dilapidated freak show, space-age avant-jazz genius Sun Ra met avant-garde "serious music" composer John Cage in an unforgettable performance. You couldn't imagine two figures more opposite. Cage was known for his unusual...