Jazz & Improvisation / Cosmic

The planets align this October as the mighty Sun Ra Arkestra, under the direction of the maestro Marshall Allen, release their first studio album in over twenty years, ‘Swirling’. Recorded at Rittenhouse Soundworks in Philadelphia, the new recording represents the continuation of a heartfelt rebirth of the Arkestra under Allen’s guidance since Sun Ra left the planet in 1993, gaining new generations of followers from their regular touring across the globe. With a big band line-up featuring long-s…

In the years leading up to 1971, Sun Ra wrote many compositions and poems specifically inspired by the ancient African Kingdoms and many others with associated mythological and heliocentric connotations. As such, a visit to Egypt and the opportunity for the Arkestra to play there was a matter of necessity. Ra’s first ever concerts outside of the US had occurred in late summer and autumn of 1970 with performances in France, Germany and the UK and a second European tour was arranged for late 1971.…

Strut present the final instalment in their series of reissues of Sun Ra’s historic recordings in Egypt with The Sun Ra Arkestra meets Salah Ragab in Egypt plus the Cairo Jazz Band, originally released on Greek label Praxis in 1983.  Salah Ragab first encountered the Arkestra at a concert at the house of Goethe Institut ex-pat Hartmut Geerken during the Arkestra’s first visit to Cairo and Heliopolis in December 1971 and, although Ra and Ragab did not meet in person on that occasion, they did mee…

*2022 stock. In process of stocking* Following 2016's definitive collection of singles released by Sun Ra from across his illustrious career, Strut present the second volume of the vinyl edition on 3LP format which focus on Ra's later 1962-1991 period. Released sporadically during the three decades and primarily on the Saturn label, the 45s offer one-off missives from Ra's prolific cosmic journey, tracing the development of his forwardthinking 'Space-Bop' and his unique take on jazz and blues tr…

This 2LP bundle includes the two latest Formalibera albums: John Tchicai "Wigmore Hall 1968", and John Tchicai, Peter Kowald "John Tchicai Quintet, John Tchicai Peter Kowald Duo".John Tchicai "Wigmore Hall 1968" (LP)* Edition of 300 copies. High thickness cardboard with opaque laminated cover. Comes with a printed insert.* John Tchicai (1936-2012) was one of the most visionary free jazz saxophonists of the 20th century - a rare artist whose voice stood apart even among giants. Born in Copenhagen…

2025 much-needed repress. On May 27th 1983, drummer Masahiko Togashi and guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi, two pivotal figures in the Japanese free jazz scene that had been working together since the 1960's, performed and record this unique set at Zojoji Hall in Tokyo. At the time, Japanese jazz musicians were trying to find their own voice, welcoming creative elements coming in from the USA and Europe. The two musicians were at the fore-front of this generation, with Takayanagi developing his own …

Essential listening for Sun Ra devotees and cosmic explorers! Roaratorio's incredible survey of the unheard Sun Ra continues with Sun Embassy, featuring recordings from Sun Studios - aka Ra's house in Philadelphia - captured between 1968 and 1969. This is prime period Arkestra music, deep in the cosmic zone, with nine tracks that include six compositions never heard before in any form! Add to that fresh arrangements of 1950s classics like "Sunology" and "Ancient Aiethiopia", plus an early rendit…

Broc Recordz is thrilled to announce the imminent release of our latest album, Cosmos Giants! This cosmic fusion is the result of an epic collaboration between maestro Janko Nilovic, JJ Whitefield of the Poets of Rhythm, and Igor Zhukovsky of the Soul Surfers. Together, they've crafted a musical universe where genre boundaries blur, giving way to a transcendent sonic experience. Immerse yourself in a musical journey where funk, psyche, and soul intertwine to create something truly magical!

Repressed for the first time on LP by Le Très Jazz Club, this fantastic album comes with an insert documenting the story of The Elysian Spring and the recording of this true masterpiece. « Glass flowers », recorded in 1969, and only pressed by 500 copies at the time, is an unclassifiable album, overtaking the jazz outlines. Can words really describe music? It may be hard when music is as fantastic as on this LP. « Glass flowers » is an unclassifiable album, overtaking the jazz outlines, recorded…

Those looking for a comprehensive overview of Sun Ra’s celestial magic could do far worse than acquire a copy of ‘Artyard in a Box’, a collection of nine classic long players from the Sun Ra archive set across seven CDs. ‘Disco 3000’, ‘Sleeping Beauty’, ‘On Jupiter’, ‘Beyond the Purple Star Zone’, ‘Oblique Parallax’, ‘Horizon’, ‘Nidhamu’, ‘Dark Myth Equation Visitation’ and ‘The Antique Blacks’ all appear, spanning the more soulful and spiritual manifestations of his work such as on ‘The Antique…

* Edition of 300 copies. High thickness cardboard with opaque laminated cover. Comes with a printed insert. * John Tchicai (1936 – 2012) was one of the most important free improvising saxophonists of the 20th Century: an artist of rare vision and aptitude whose lines soared and stood out even in the most hallowed company, and whose body of work as a leader / composer is among the most singular and distinct within the entire canon of that music. But Tchicai’s importance doesn’t end there. Born in…

From 1960 to the present day, from Georges Arvanitas to Laetitia Shériff, or from Manu Dibango to "Mama" Béa Tékielski, everyone has wanted to include François Jeanneau in their team at some point. This, his first album under his own name, was recorded for Jef Gilson’s Palm label in 1975, a few months after ‘’Watch Devil Go’’ by Thollot, with more or less the same cast: Jeanneau on saxophone, Jenny-Clark on double bass and percussion, Lubat replaces Thollot on drums and Michel Grailler is added …

Otoroku is proud to present the first vinyl reissue of "Blue Notes for Mongezi", one of the most passionate celebrations of a life in music ever laid to tape. Recorded in late 1975 by Blue Notes, then reduced to a quartet - Dudu Pukwana on  alto sax, whistle, percussion, and vocals; Johnny Dyani on bass, bells, and vocals; Louis Moholo-Moholo on drums, percussion, and vocals; and Chris McGregor on piano, and percussion - and issued the following year by Ogun, the album is a kairos; the first com…

In Cosmic Music, Andy Beta traces Alice Coltrane’s journey from Detroit church pews to avant‑garde bandstands and ashram altars, revealing a visionary composer, bandleader and spiritual teacher whose work radically reshaped the possibilities of Black American music.

On Dybbuk Tse!, Yoni Mayraz turns Jewish possession lore into a groove‑driven exorcism: live‑wire jazz, 90s NYC hip‑hop grit and Middle Eastern modes colliding in a story where a wandering spirit is forced out beat by beat.

Creative Improvisation Ensemble captures the meeting of two avant-garde giants, Marion Brown and Wadada Leo Smith, on May 12, 1970 in Paris, France. The session finds Brown and Smith on their primary instruments, alto saxophone and trumpet respectively, with both musicians performing various percussion instruments as well. The release marks the latest edition of Org Music’s Freedom Records reissues series, mastered for vinyl by Dave Gardner and pressed at Pallas Group on transparent red audiophi…

Huge Tip! 200 copies limited edition  - While most musicians spend years developing chemistry, Exotic Sin and Julian Sartorius achieved something close to musical telepathy in a single afternoon at BBC Broadcasting House. What started as a radio session for BBC Radio 3's Late Junction became something far more significant—a masterclass in how three minds can think as one organism when the conditions are exactly right. In Session documents this first studio encounter between the London-based duo …

300 copies. Rural psych-jazz improvisations by Finnish bastard sons of Arbete & Fritid! This sextet - featuring Toni Laakso, Janne Martinkauppi, Sami Pekkola, Daniel Stolle, Erno Taipale and Ilkka Vekka - delivers some serious countryside free music madness. If you know Pekkola, Taipale and Vekka from their brutal Ho Chi Moon trio (also on Ultraääni), you know what to expect: freedom music with no compromises! But here it gets even wilder - six heads exploring the zones where Swedish progg, Finn…

*2025 repress* Universal Consciousness is the fifth solo album by Alice Coltrane, released in 1971 on Impulse! Records. Universal Consciousness builds nicely on albums that came before it. It grows out of the unbridled celebration of her late husband's life on A Monastic Trio and the soulful wanderings of her most well-known record, Journey in Satchadananda.In The Wire's "100 Records That Set the World on Fire," David Toop writes, "[Universal Consciousness] clearly connects to other dyspeptic ja…

Deluxe reissue edition. Restoration and digital transfer from original analogue tapes. Reissue of a 1979 duo recording of legendary South African bassist Johnny Dyani (of The Blue Notes) and drummer Clifford Jarvis (who played with Sun Ra for over two decades). 180g vinyl presented in a deluxe gatefold sleeve - limited edition manufactured by German audiophile specialist, Pallas Group. Johnny 'Mbizo' Dyani was a jazz musician who performed during the apartheid era. He played for almost his entir…

Deluxe reissue edition. Restoration and digital transfer from original analogue tapes.. The Ethnic Heritage Ensemble was founded in 1973 by percussionist Kahil El'Zabar and had a huge impact on jazz. They have put out several sublime and hotly in demand albums over the years since - the excellent Be Known: Ancient Future Music being one of them - and are rooted in free-jazz improvisations and inspired workouts. Their second album Impressions came in 1982 and is now remastered and reissued for t…

*Limited edition of 600 copies* Nomadic spiritual jazz duo The Sea Ensemble embodied the ethos of their era and art to a uniquely poetic degree. Founded in the early 1970’s by ethnomusicologist Zusaan Kali Fasteau and versatile instrumentalist Donald Rafael Garrett (sideman to John Coltrane, Archie Shepp, and Roland Kirk, among others), the couple’s lifestyle mirrored their music: restless, questing, collaborative, and improvised. Their itinerant journeying spanned Senegal, Congo, Morocco, Haiti…

Fate In A Pleasant Mood showcases Sun Ra and his Myth Science Arkestra at a turning point, merging big band swing with celestial avant-garde impulses. Recorded in 1960 Chicago and released in 1965, this concise, mystical set captures Ra’s fascination with outer space and metaphysical abstraction through poetic miniatures and crystalline ensemble interplay.​

This 2-CD box is comprised of two albums originally intended for release on ABC's Impulse Records but never issued. After Impulse abruptly ended a licensing agreement with Sun Ra's El Saturn label, the two unreleased album masters were boxed up and returned to Saturn, where they languished in obscurity for the next 27 years. Evidence has remixed the original four-track tapes down to two-track stereo. Former Impulse Records head Ed Michel wrote the notes, which chronicle the short, strange histor…

Much needed repress. Originally issued by the seminal imprint Saravah in 1972, and among the most uncategorizable and sought after artefacts of the French avant-garde, Barney Wilen’s Moshi is nothing short of a masterpiece - long holding a coveted spot in the hearts of adventurous listeners and record collectors alike. A wild unkept cultural collage. A series of sonic experiments. A spiritual, psychedelic pilgrimage into the unknown - darting from one continent to the next, each of its tangents …

A stunning new 8 CD box set, comprised of recording from New Jazz Festival Balver Höhle between 1976 & 1977, and issued by the German imprint B.Free, offers a mind altering vision of just that. Toward the middle of 2016, B.Free released a sprawling 11 CD box of recordings from the 1974 and 75 incarnations of the New Jazz Festival Balver Höhle. As remarkable as it was, the following years seriously upped the game. Found within this new box are complete performance recordings of ensembles led by s…

* First ever reissues of this iconic demonic slice of Saturnian splendor, one of the most coveted releases in the Ra canon! Features the emblematic “Nuclear War” anthem, earmarked to be played like an air raid siren when we as a society decide to pack up and call it a planet. A cut further popularized by Yo La Tengo. Stunning new cover art blending favorite elements from the handmade original Saturn pressings. * While the most renown track in this omniversal opus is the atomic expletive-filled r…

In restock Reissue of the legendary Afro spiritual minimal electronic masterpiece 5-track first LP (plus 2 bonus tracks) from horn wizard and original underground FM radio DJ Roland P. Young, featuring soprano sax, clarinet, and electronically-processed bass clarinet. An enjoyable outing from a neglected musician. Cosmic Afro-minimal electronic winds recorded in 1970s San Francisco. Classic explorations from the dude who was responsible for the legendary Infinite Sound LP on Arch 1750. Thankful…

Pharoah Sanders recorded the songs that comprise Thembi in the winter of ’70/’71, in between  sessions with Alice Coltrane that would eventually become her masterpiece Journey In Satchidananda LP. The same compelling spirituality that embued Coltrane’s masterpiece with a mood of stately calm and grace pervades Thembi. ‘On Thembi, that was the first time that I ever touched a Fender Rhodes electric piano. We got to the studio in California — Cecil McBee had to unpack his bass, the drummer had to …

According to many enthusiasts and scholars, this album is among Sun Ra's most definitive studio recordings. The Magic City contains just four tracks, with the title- theme taking up the whole of the A side at a little over 27 minutes. Then on the B side comes The Shadow World, followed by Abstract Eye and Abstract I, which are two variants of the same composition. These pieces are essentially ensemble improvisations recorded live.

"Best of..." (catalog number ART54) is a limited edition compilation LP by the legendary jazz innovator Sun Ra, released on white vinyl in 2024. This collection brings together 14 early tracks that showcase Sun Ra’s multifaceted genius as a bandleader, composer, arranger, and producer. The album is issued by Reel-To-Reel Music Company and stands out for its collectible format and carefully curated selection of tracks.

Huge Tip! Commemoration Songs is a soundtrack diary from the past few years, inspired by a world where everything is being commodified at the expense of human rights and making money has become the be-all and end-all of human existence. Amidst all of this, we still commemorate the people who were instrumental in building a system that can only survive by projecting violence on us. The album consists of 8 pieces, where free jazz saxophones meet warm analog synth sequences, compelling basslines an…

Sun Ra's legendary 1978 Italian studio sessions, now available together for the first time ever on vinyl! Long sought-after by collectors, these extremely rare studio sessions were originally released in 1978 as two double LPs (New Steps and Other Voices, Other Blues) on the mysterious Italian jazz label, Horo Records. They have never been reissued on vinyl (and only partially reissued on CD) until now! With the help of trumpet player, Michael Ray, drummer, Luqman Ali and saxophonist John Gilmor…

The 2018 live performance captured on Carlos Niño & Miguel Atwood-Ferguson’s 'Chicago Waves' marked a beautiful turning point for International Anthem. The moment was recorded at our then-HQ in Chicago, Co-Prosperity, the day after Niño and Atwood-Ferguson performed as part of Makaya McCraven’s ensemble to celebrate the release of 'Universal Beings' and recreate their contributions to that album's “Los Angeles Side." The two musicians were keen to use their time in Chicago to not only support Ma…

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 co…

* 2023 Edition. Remasterd * God Is More Than Love Can Ever Be is something of a rarity in the Sun Ra catalog—a cohesive album, with none of the stylistic eclecticism and musical chair shifting found on many of the artist’s self-released LPs. Recorded at Variety Studios one day in 1979, the album's five tracks comprise a solid jazz trio set. It's also unusual because it had not previously been reissued. In March 2018 Cosmic Myth Records issued a newly remastered edition in LP, CD and digital form…

2xLP is remastered with Bonus Tracks, liner notes by Irwin Chusid, and an expanded essay by David Toop. Packed in tip-on Stoughton gatefold jacket, and includes a printed insert card of the original cover art. Fans of Sun Ra's Space Bop and genre-bending jazz were in for a shock with Strange Strings. Even in the eclectic and sometimes baffling Sun Ra catalog, Strange Strings, first issued in 1967, is an outlier. Is it music, or just noise? Or noise as music? John Cage could not be reached for co…

Live at BBC 1970 captures the raw energy and innovation of Nucleus in their formative year, presenting a selection of live sessions recorded for the BBC just as the group was redefining British jazz-rock. Founded by trumpeter Ian Carr, Nucleus emerged from London’s vibrant late-60s scene and quickly established themselves at the forefront of jazz fusion, inspired by the electric revolution of Miles Davis. This LP features standout performances of key tracks from their groundbreaking debut Elasti…

2007 release ** "Improvisations between jazz, minimalism, cosmic influences and acid rock; few are the possible comparisons, above all probably Sunburned Hand Of The Man. The music creates a decidedly hypnotic but also tribal effect, all immersed in a spatial atmosphere in which dilated and rarefied sounds are lost around percussions that oscillate between hypnosis and obsession."

2007 release **  "Technically the full title is No Neck Blues Band Meets The Clear People with Mystery Gypped Live At Ken’s Electric Lake, but that seems unnecessarily long to me. In short, it’s NNCK with members of Sunburned Hand Of The Man.  Over the course of the two discs the few inevitable moments of dullness are obscured by glorious passages of spiraling rhythm, spaced hypnotics and trance grooves. Woods evoke a primal sense of refuge and sanctuary which the band coveys very well. If some …