Sun Ra & His Myth-Science Arkestra - Strange Strings (2014)

Fans of space bop Sun Ra and genre-changing jazz were shocked by the Strange Strings. Even in Sun Ra's eclectic and sometimes confusing catalog, Strange Strings, first released in 1967, is an exception. Is it music or just noise? Or is the noise like music? John Cage could not be reached for comment.
For this album, Sun Ra gathered an arsenal of exotic stringed instruments and distributed them to his Arkestra, based on the fact that "strings can touch people in a special way." The fact that the Arkestrans did not know how to play or tune these instruments was not inappropriate — it made sense. Ra called it a "study of ignorance." The result was primitive, but refined - cruel, but at the same time very sensitive. In his essay for this expanded edition, musician-curator David Toop calls Strange Strings "steeped in mystery.".