We’re excited to share with you an incredibly rare recording. After a few years of intense searching and meticulous preparation, the excellent Lanquidity Records can finally present to you their Sun Ra Arkestra project – a rare recording of the ensemble’s little- known, first ever performance in Poland in 1986!!!
Recently rediscovered, the complete tape of the concert lay for almost three decades in a Kalisz basement collecting dust. It has now been remastered by the infinitely talented Marcin Cichy (Ninja Tune), giving all the chance to re-live each musical moment of this historic gig. Listen to our exclusive premiere of Yeah Man!
This is Lanquidity Records’ flagship release out on October 26th you can pre-order your copy here.
It was one of the most peculiar landings of the Sun Ra Arkestra.
Time: 7 December 1986, Polish People’s Republic, still separated from the West by the Iron Curtain. It’s a grey and poor twilight of a real socialism era. In three years the Eastern Bloc would collapse, but what still occupies the minds of Poles now is mostly the martial law imposed by the Pro-Moscow regime in 1981, when the country wanted to free itself from the influence of the Soviet Union.
Place: Kalisz, one of the oldest Polish cities dating back to the 10th century, historically connected with the first kings of Poland, grew into a multinational centre with time as not only the Czech Brethren escaping the Habsburg monarchy found refuge here, but also prominent rabbis known across Europe used to operate and expound in the local Jewish community. In the 20th century, Kalisz became a provincial city and its presence in the cultural life of Poland was most significantly marked with the International Jazz Piano Festival. It was during the 13th edition of the festival that Sun Ra Arkestra performed.
What turned out to be most memorable for the concert-goers was the closing procession of musicians who left the stage to walk around the audience, circle the venue, and return. Researchers of the Sun Ra mysticism recognized such gestures as rituals of passage corresponding to the cosmic cycles of death and resurrection. From a European perspective, Sun Ra’s work turns out to be a dream come true for Wagner and Stockhausen. His music brought the myth to life. The myth connecting the past with the future – above the unfavourable present – which created a sphere of freedom. However, Ra used to say that it was not freedom that was at stake here, but precision and discipline.