Strut announces previously unreleased ’80s-era Sun Ra album, Inside the Light World

Strut Records has announced a new album of previously unreleased Sun Ra recordings from the 1980s. On April 20, which is Record Store Day, Inside the Light World: Sun Ra Meets the OVC will be released, featuring recordings with the Outer Space Visual Communicator, an instrument that “harnessed the power of light, casting mesmerising kaleidoscopic, multi-coloured patterns onto a screen suspended above performers on stage.”

Bill Sebastian, rocket scientist and inventor of the OVC, said of encountering Sun Ra for the first time, “I was living in the Fort Hill area of Roxbury, and one of my friends said, “Hey, you got to come down and check this out.” I said, “What?” He says, “I can’t explain it. Just come.” So, we went down, and I was blown away. I believe it was at Paul’s Mall – a small jazz club. He packed in the whole Arkestra, and it was the most amazing evening I’d ever experienced. I knew at that moment, “This is what I’ve got to do with the OVC.” I was a spectator. I had nothing to offer him at that point. His music was embodying everything that I was trying to achieve with the OVC.”

Read our Beginner’s Guide to the Interstellar Music of Sun Ra.

Sun Ra Inside the Light World tracklist:

A1 ‘Calling Planet Earth’
A2 ‘Theme Of The Stargazers’
A3 ‘Love In Outer Space’ (dx7 interlude)
B1 ‘Love In Outer Space’
B2 ‘Stardust From Tomorrow’
B3 ‘El Is A Sound Of Joy’
B4 ‘Sunset On The Nile’ (DX7 interlude)
C1 ‘Sunset On The Nile’
C2 ‘East Of The Sun’
C3 ‘Saturn Rings’
C4 ‘Calling Planet Earth’ (Piano Interlude)
D1 ‘Discipline 27-II’