Atlantis

Sun Ra | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 25, 1993)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Evidence
• ASIN: B0000014KI
• In-Print Editions: Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #84,773 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #31 in Music > Indie Music > Jazz > Avant-Garde

Track Listings

1. Mu

2. Lemuria

3. Yucatan (Saturn version)

4. Yucatan (Impulse version)

5. Bimini

6. Atlantis

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Out, August 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Atlantis (Audio CD)

The first five tracks are fairly tame, short pieces for organ and percussion, primarily, leaving the listener utterly unprepared for the twenty-minute apocalypse that is the title track, wherein an eerie depth charge (or is it an alarm signal?) leads you on your descent into the Maelstrom. An absolutely manic organ solo grabs your body and smashes it against the ocean floor repeatedly as the world splits apart. The fainter of heart will eject the CD at this point rather than drown; the brave ones will grit their teeth or go limp and ultimately be elevated. You slowly emerge to unearthly (heavenly?) brass tones and finally drift off almost peacefully, agreeing with the voices that chant "Sun Ra/ And his band/ from Outer Space/ Have entertained you here." Too much!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This guy *was* from another planet!, June 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Atlantis (Audio CD)

This album has two halves: the first consists of 5 excellent short pieces involving Sun Ra, horns and percussion. Some of them are almost funky, a foreshadowing of the stuff Miles Davis would be doing within a few years.

The second half, and indeed the highlight of the album, is the title suite. Ra goes mad on the his "Solar Sound Organ", providing a highly dissonant solo that builds into an intense climax. (Think Pink Floyd's "A Saucerful of Secrets" without all the catchy bits) Then some manic big-band playing enters, and the last minute of the suite presents a neat surprise.

This album is highly recommended to adventurous music listeners. It will appeal primarily to free jazz types, though some space rock fans will like too. Beware that the sound quality is extremely poor: sound is muffled, and during the title suite you can hear footsteps and voices in the background.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unique Abstraction, October 23, 2000

By 

Scott McFarland (Manassas, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Atlantis (Audio CD)

Side 1 sounds to me like Thelonious Monk on a clavinet somewhere on a moon of the planet Saturn, jamming with African drummers. It is unique music and very worthwhile in my opinion. Ra is on clavoline (it sounds a bit like an electric guitar) alongside several drummers and minimal bits of jazz horn playing. It foreshadows Ra's "discipline" series of compositions, which required players to work around rigid linear themes, but this particular set of jams is unique in atmosphere and concept.

Side 2 is a scarifying live performance (recorded at Olutjuni (sic)'s Culture Center in NYC in 1967) featuring Ra's organ playing as if in accompaniment to a horror movie. It's interesting, but Side 1 is what makes this release especially worthwhile.