Sun Ra - When Angels Speak of Love (Remastered 2019)

Originally issued back in 1966 'When Angels Speak of Love' shows Sun Ra and his ever-morphing Arkestra on top 'out' form, as he plays gong and pianoforte against cavernous echo effects which become yet another instrument in his repertoire. The liner notes comment on how conscious he was that his music wasn't 'free' ('because nobody is free'), but you'd be forgiven for lumping this in with Albert Ayler and such other greats of free music. It's odd but in the last twenty years we've seen Sun Ra increasingly mentioned when talking about psychedelic music and when listening to a record as open minded and exploratory as 'When Angels Speak of Love' it does indeed transcend the jazz genre and become something else entirely, maybe having more in common with psychedelic or progressive rock than one might usually think. Sure Sun Ra was on his own plain, doing things his own way, but his compositions and improvisations have had so much influence on the genres we are now obsessed with - Sunburned Hand of the Man, Vibracathedral Orchestra, No Neck Blues Band, it would be hard to imagine any of these guys without the great Sun Ra having pioneered the sound early on. A gorgeous collection of still extraordinary and totally out-of-time music...