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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 this. The origins of these records can be hard to pinpoint at times, but when it comes to Thunder Of The Gods, it’s a bit easier. “Calling Planet Earth – We’ll Wait For You” was discovered on tapes from Ra’s, Universe In Blue, believed to be recorded in ’71. The raucous title track and “Moonshots Across the Sky” are unearthed from the ’66 Strange Strings sessions. Modern Harmonic has once again paired Ra’s sonic art with the visual art of “The Father of Modern Space Art,” Chesley Bonestell, whose 1952 work ”Formation of the Earth’s Continents” spralls across the front and back covers. – Press Release

"Thanks to Modern Harmonic, in partnership with Sun Ra LLC, soon you will be holding an album of unreleased Sun Ra music 50 years after it was recorded! That this music survived to reach our ears after all of this time is quite a miraculous gift. It sounds as though it could have come from either the ancient past or the distant future, yet most perfectly, it’s the music of right now.” — Christopher Eddy (Sun Ra Arkive)

“This new set of unheard songs is gripping and challenging, as to be expected from the the free jazz legend. Using oddball orchestrations, Sun Ra unfurls more complexities of the astral realm.” – Pitchfork

“Thunder of the Gods is an exercise in ignorance, in trust, and in patience. It is different from everything else in the Sun Ra discography in its willingness to fully accept and embrace the unknown. In their unfamiliarity with stringed instruments, the band finds a freedom even greater than the freedom normally inherent in free-jazz. That freedom depends on their trust in their fearless leader and in their own ability and knowledge. They know where they are going and they trust that they can arrive there. This is the story of “Calling Planet Earth” as Sun Ra ventures beyond the known and into the strange. But it isn’t simply that they venture there themselves, alone. They will wait for the rest of us, and each member says so as a group and also as individuals. Waiting is the real trick of Thunder of the Gods. Listening to this music is often challenging, often exhausting, often requires great patience, but when it finally opens itself up, the listener can take that journey to another realm alongside the Arkestra and see the new lands and the shore on which the band has been waiting for 50 years. It takes time and effort, but that’s ok. We’ll wait.” – Popmatters

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