Atlantis (Remastered 2014) [feat. John Gilmore, Pat Patrick, Marshall Allen & Danny Thompson]

This album reveals two sides to Sun Ra and his Arkestra. Recorded in 1968 at the band’s Sun Studio headquarters in New York City, the first five tracks are drum-heavy affairs featuring multiple players on hand drums. While the band’s “African” music of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s was more exotica than accurate, the band’s friendship with Nigerian drummer Babatunde Olatunji had a major influence here. These tracks often also include the bandleader on a Hohner Clavinet (referred to as “Solar Sound Instrument”), but not much in the way of horns. Recorded at the Olatunji Center of Culture in 1967, the 22-minute title track is considered one of Sun Ra’s finest moments on an album and a template for what this band would do for years to come. The music here is unapologetically difficult, verging on frightening when Sunny conjures sounds from a Clavioline and a Gibson Kalamazoo organ (a.k.a. “Solar Sound Organ”), as the music rises and falls with interwoven ideas and textures rather than proper solos. All of it's newly remastered from original source tapes using 24-bit transfers.